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The Orange Box Walkthrough

Half-Life 2 (PC) guide
by KeeperBvK aka Burkhart von Klitzing
Contact: KeeperBvK@web.de
Dedication: I dedicate this work to my beloved dad who passed away on the
07/13/2005.
I always loved you and I always will. Thank you so much for the
time we had.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0.1 Legal Stuff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Guide may not be posted on any other website other than
www.gamefaqs.com
www.supercheats.com
www.dlh.net
www.mogelgott.de
www.honestgamers.com
www.xboxevolved.com
www.gamesradar.com
www.cheatplanet.com
www.cheathappens.com
www.trainerscity.com
without my permission and it may not be used commercially in any possible way.
If you want to post it on another site please contact me via E-Mail or via
the Message Board.
Do not claim this guide or any part of it to be your creation.
If you find any mistakes (even regarding the language as I'm German) please
let me know.
Copyright 2008 Burkhart von Klitzing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0.2 Version History
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Started working on this on May 30, 2006.
1.0: Finished on 06/18/2006, 179 KB large
1.01: Finished on 06/22/2006, 179 KB large
- Added www.supercheats.com
1.02: Finished on 07/09/2996, 179 KB large
- Improved on the museum section of the walkthrough.
- Added the secondary fire of the Pulse-Rifle as an alternative way to
destroying the Striders, thanks to Bruce Zhang.
1.03: Finished on 07/26/2006, 180 KB large
- Changed Dog to D0g. Thx to Robbie Vancourt.
1.04: Finished on 10/27/2006, 180 KB large
- Walker Wilson told me that the pheropods can also be used to distract
Combines, so I added that.
1.05: Finished on 01/18/2007, 180 KB large
- Added the secondary fire for grenades, thx to Dominic_rules.
1.06: Finished on 02/17/2007, 180 KB large
- Added www.dlh.net and www.mogelgott.de
1.07: Finished on 03/12/2007, 181 KB large
- Added www.honestgamers.com.
1.08: Finished on 08/07/2007, 181 KB large
- Minor tweaking and a better strategy against Hoppers added.
1.09: Finished on 09/30/2007, 182 KB large
- Added a great new way of beating the siege part in Entanglement. Thanks to
Vidmo for that.
1.10: Finished on 12/17/2007, 182 KB large
- Added www.xboxevolved.com.
1.11: Finished on 01/23/2008, 183 KB large
- Added a tiny bit to the description of the Magnum. Thanks to Andrew Carts.
1.12: Finished on 01/24/2008, 183 KB large
- Added www.gamesradar.com and www.cheatplanet.com.
1.13: Finished on 01/28/2008, 184 KB large
- Added a new strategy in Entanglement, thanks to MeestahChanggg & Darkpark.
1.14: Finished on 01/29/2008, 184 KB large
- Added www.cheathappens.com.
1.15: Finished on 02/05/2008, 184 KB large
- Added www.trainerscity.com
1.16: Finished on 02/07/2008, 185 KB large
- Added an easteregg in chapter 4 and a hint in chapter 12, thanks to
Warlock1307 and Taner Tuemkaya.
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0.3 Contents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Latest Update | Search Key |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
0.1 Legal Stuff | 1.15 | |
0.2 Version History | 1.16 | |
0.3 Contents | 1.16 | |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
1. What is Half-Life 2? | 1.0 | AAA |
2. General Hints | 1.0 | BBB |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
3. Walkthrough | 1.0 | CCC |
3.1 Chapter 1 - Point Insertion | 1.0 | CC1 |
3.2 Chapter 2 - A Red Letter Day | 1.0 | CC2 |
3.3 Chapter 3 - Route Kanal | 1.0 | CC3 |
3.4 Chapter 4 - Water Hazard | 1.16 | CC4 |
3.5 Chapter 5 - Black Mesa East | 1.03 | CC5 |
3.6 Chapter 6 - "We don't go to Ravenholm..."| 1.0 | CC6 |
3.7 Chapter 7 - Highway 17 | 1.03 | CC7 |
3.8 Chapter 8 - Sandtraps | 1.0 | CC8 |
3.9 Chapter 9 - Nova Prospekt | 1.0 | CC9 |
3.10 Chapter 9a - Entanglement | 1.13 | C9A |
3.11 Chapter 10 - Anticitizen One | 1.03 | C10 |
3.12 Chapter 11 - "Follow Freeman!" | 1.03 | C11 |
3.13 Chapter 12 - Our Benefactors | 1.16 | C12 |
3.14 Chapter 13 - Dark Energy | 1.0 | C13 |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
4. Weapons | 1.11 | DDD |
5. Enemies | 1.02 | EEE |
5.1 Combine | 1.0 | EE1 |
5.2 Xen Aliens | 1.08 | EE2 |
5.3 Bugs | 1.0 | EE3 |
5.4 Heavy Gear | 1.02 | EE4 |
5.5 Small Machines | 1.08 | EE5 |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
6. Closing Comments | 1.0 | FFF |
7. Experimental | 1.0 | GGG |
8. Credits | 1.16 | HHH |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. What is Half-Life 2? AAA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Half-Life 2 is the sequel to Half-Life. Now who would have thought? Half-Life
probably was one of the biggest gaming surprises in 1998 and together with
Starcraft it showed what the PC was capable of in terms of gameplay. Other
than Starcraft which was also released in 1998, Half-Life took graphics a
step ahead, too. Half-Life 2 (being an Ego-Shooter like HL1) also boasted
great visuals, has an extremely well crafted sound and tries its best to be
an intelligent representative of its genre with lots of dialogues, trigger
events and a fantastic physics engine, theoretically allowing for massive
possibilities of jerking around or advancing in the game.
You are Gordon Freeman (again) waking up in City 17 after having accepted to
work for the mysterious G-Man. Will our beloved, charismatic, nerdy hero shed
light onto some of the mysteries that are still unsolved? I know the answer,
but I won't tell you...yet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. General Hints BBB
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Try not to use the flash light while diving as it also uses the same energy
as your air supply.
Holding down the jump key makes you stay on the surface when swimming.
Yellow lambda symbols painted onto the wall usually indicate there's
something good around, so search for items nearby when seeing one of those.
Small crates with a yellow sticker saying supply contain just what it says:
Supplies, so open them. Also note that these boxes don't always contain the
same items. They seem somewhat intelligent, as they hold whatever you are
most in need of when opening them.
Metal crates with an ammo sign on them contain an infinite amount of this
ammo type, so open them as often as you want to and maybe use the
corresponding ammo for a while, backtracking to the crate to regain your ammo.
The buggy has an SMG ammo crate at its back.
Use explosive barrels to your advantage: Shooting them twice sets them on
fire so they explode after a few seconds; shooting them thrice blows them up
instantly. Oh and please don't ever use your crowbar on them. You can't set
them on fire with it.
When aiming over great distances, zoom in via Z, take aim and zoom out again.
This allows for shorter cross hair moves.
Don't rely on your squad mates. You might sometimes hide and let them do some
of the shooting, but don't use the squad commands or greatly change your
style of playing when the allies are around. They don't take a lot of damage
and they are far less effective than you should be.
There is no friendly fire on the rebels' side, except for explosions. Hence
you can accidentally hit your allies as often as you wish and run around in
front of your buddies even when they are amidst a fire fight. Just don't drop
a grenade, or miss-throw an explosive barrel or such.
It is possible to duck and still fire when manning a stationary machine gun.
While this gives you some protection it also probably lowers your precision,
so only do it if you desperately need to save every single health point.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Walkthrough CCC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This guide was written for the hard difficulty setting. As far as I know the
number and position of enemies are the same for every difficulty, so this
guide also works perfectly for easy and normal.
I divided the walkthrough into the chapters given by the game and I further
divided those into the various areas that are connected by loading pauses. To
allow for an easier navigation of the guide, I also named those areas, trying
to omit spoilers given by the titles.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.1 Chapter 1 - Point Insertion-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC1
[City 17 Train Station]
Be awed by the stunning face textures and animations of the G-Man while you
can: You won't be able to come up this close to him in a while. He says
something about a mission (remember accepting to work for him at the end of
Half-Life 1?) and then you wake up in a train heading for the City 17 station.
Valve definitely seems to like the idea of beginning a game in any sort of
transport devices. Disembark the train only to be flashed by some sort of
sentry drone. It is just scanning you, so don't worry. As you go on, though,
you see some masked humanoid creatures, called Combine, working as the local
poilce which can already hurt you although you are still amidst the prologue.
Simply don't touch them or throw objects at them and you're in no danger.
Listen to the old man (Dr. Breen) on the big screen to further realize you
are in some sort of totalitarian city, reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. Take a
look on the right to see an alien from HL1 cleaning the floor. Finally
everybody should have realized there is something strange going on in this
world.
As you move on you can listen to some civilians further deepening the feeling
of something bad going on, but luckily Valve gave you the Source Engine,
meaning you can throw bottles at people, rip out a phone receiver, get
infinite cans out of a vending machine (like in HL1) and so on to distract
yourself. After a while you are told to enter a cage and to follow a Combine
past an interrogation room (look inside to see some civilian explaining
himself and a Combine closing the viewing hatch) into another interrogation
room. Oh oh, he wants to take care of you on his own, even turning off the
cameras...phew, it's Barney; your old pal from Half-Life 1. After a short
conversation with Dr. Kleiner via the terminal the Combine get suspicious and
try to enter the room. Hurry, leave the room through the door Barney opens
for you...or stay a bit longer, hop onto Barney's head and relax. The Combine
won't come in at any time.
As you enter the dirty storage room you are given your first assignment:
Press E to pick up objects (crates in this case) and use this "talent" to
build a stack under the window so you can leave the room into a small court.
[Leaving the Station]
Enter a new part of the station and watch one of those wicked guards tossing
a can onto the ground, telling you to throw it into the trash can. Do so and
he will let you pass. Exit the station via the door on the left, allowing you
to get a view of City 17 and especially of the citadel in its centre. Take a
right, watch another interrogation in a small room and move on to a street
barricade. Climb up the ladder in the alley on the right and drop down onto
the crate on the other side of the fence. On the left you can see your first
strider; War of the Worlds, anyone? Follow the path past two civilians,
talking about the Combine investigating lots of buildings, to a play ground.
And, oh goodie, it really is a play ground: Pick up the doll making a fun
sound, hop onto the swings, drop a concrete block on the teeter totter and so
on. Can't just everybody play like that? The rotten HL2 world would be a
better place for everybody. Anyway, enter the building on your left once
you've had enough.
[Miscount]
There's only one possible way: Into the hallway with a few Combines standing
up ahead. Get into the kitchen, talk to some people and again enjoy the
Source Engine as you pull the TV out of the wall and throw it through the
window (eventually hitting a Combine down below). Proceed to the end of the
corridor and listen to the announcement: They have detected there's a person
in your sector that doesn't belong there...you! Run up a storey (any other
paths are blocked either by locks or by Combines) and into a room a guy waves
you into. Don't waste too much time now, as the enemies beat their way
through your newly found allies, but you're not in a big hurry. At the other
end of the hallway you'll have to walk up another set of stairs to yet
another room guarded by a civilian. He tells you to move on quickly, but
actually you can stay in that room and go to the bathroom or such, given he
manages to hold back the Combines as long as you wish to stay.
[Cutie]
Up to the loft and quickly out of the broken window onto the roofs. By now
the Combines should have come close by, starting fire from behind. Stick to
the right wall and carefully walk along the ledge not falling down into the
abyss. Eventually you reach a window to climb in, bringing you into another
loft. Go down the ramp, take a right and don't panic as a Combine busts open
the door. Simply turn around, go to the other door and...see that one also
get smashed open. There's only the way back up the ramp left, so take it; or
at least try to. It breaks as you hop onto it so be a man about it and stay
where you are so the Combine can beat the crap out of you. After going down,
Alyx arrives to the rescue. Follow her into the lift. Listen to the one-sided
conversation and finish the first chapter.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.2 Chapter 2 - A Red Letter Day-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-CC2
[Face Humper]
Follow Alyx to the first yellow lambda symbol in the game. Every time you see
one of these you know there's something good around. In this case Ms. Vance
opens a secret path to Dr. Kleiner's lab. Listen to the dialogue between the
two characters and also Barney joining it after a while, and distract
yourself a bit by teleporting a cactus, looking through the cool lens,
touching the little hula-girl-figurine, discovering an old photo of Dr. Klein
on the pin wall, having a look at an old picture from Black Mesa or maybe
just hopping onto any character's head and staying there for a while. ^^
Eventually Barney walks into a small storage room, finding Lamarr who turns
out to be a debeaked and sexually active Face Hugger. Put on your Hazard Suit
and tank some suit energy at the Combine power station in the corner of the
main lab room.
Then enter the teleporter room and get your first look at Alyx' father (Eli
Vance) on the screen. As Alyx is about to be teleported something seems to go
awfully wrong...great machinery: It's only the plug that has fallen off. Put
it back into the wall and activate the switch to both finally transmit Alyx
and to get some exaggerating praise from Dr. Kleiner. At least Barney shares
your thoughts and cracks a nice joke about it. ^^ Now it's time to be
teleported yourself. Step into the transmitter and watch yourself being
transported to various places thanks to Lamarr. Oh goodie, Dr. Breen now
knows you are in City 17. Oh well, at least you don't get eaten by that ugly
fish and after finally ending your travel outside the lab near some Combine
scanners you are in a better condition than President Scroob was in
Spaceballs after being teleported.
Anyway, you are told to hurry, yet again there's no need to. Drop down and
search for a door behind another fence, leading you to a passage that's
blocked by some wooden bars. Hmm, how to get through? Barney joins you above
giving you the original, famous crowbar from Half-Life 1. Slash your way
through the wooden planks and a crate to reach the first (unarmed) enemy to
beat: A Combine Sentry Drone. Drop down and quickly take a left into the
train, as some Combines open fire from up above on the right. Hack your way
through the wagon, leave it and hide behind the train on your left since
another train is coming in, which might roll over you. Get rid of another
sentry drone and follow the incoming train. Zip in between two trains on your
left without stopping and enter another wagon nearby. Climb up the ladder,
turn left and jump onto the wagon ahead and over the fence while being
attacked from behind. Swiftly move on, crack the lowest wooden bar at the
opening and go down the ramp.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.3 Chapter 3 - Route Kanal-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC3
[Battle on Rails]
Refresh at the health station on the left wall. Hear that cry for help? We
can't ignore that, now can we? Haste around the corner and smack the pistol
wielding Combine with your crowbar. You should be able to catch him off guard,
allowing for a few blows before he and his companion start attacking you.
Once the first one is down, go for the Combine with the tazer stick. Go back
to the health panel if you haven't depleted it before this struggle. Then
move on, go up the ramp to the locked door and stay there, waiting for
another Combine to walk down the stairs. Aim for his head. Move on until you
see daylight coming down. Around the corner is another Combine whom you
should give a head shot.
Step out of the dark, walk down the metal stairs outside to trigger a train
coming to a halt right where you need it. Go back up and use the train to
reach the other side of the trench. Turn around and blow up one of the
explosive barrels to buy yourself some more time when breaking the upper
wooden plank in the entrance to the house. Enter it and break apart another
Sentry Drone while watching out not to come too close to the windows, as
infinite Combines aim at you from the other side of the trench. See the
yellow lambda symbol on the left wall? And do you remember what I said about
it? Approach it to find some ammo and health. Move over to the other room and
simply hop onto the explosive barrels and crawl out of the house instead of
wasting a bullet on the barrels.
Stay left of the exit and aim for a barrel on a ledge up ahead. Its explosion
takes care of some Combines nearby. Next, look at the small crate with the
yellow sticker on it. Yellow? Seems like some Ivan Pavlov-experiment to me,
as yellow once again means goodies, so keep in mind to watch for those small
crates throughout the game. Move on and climb over the deformed fence which
gets you back into the line of sight with the endlessly respawning Combines
on the other side of the trench. Speed to the containers on the right and
crawl through the vent (picking up some more items) still not getting you
away from those guys.
Continue to the right and drop down onto the pallet to avoid falling damage.
Shoot the barrels and watch out for some more barrels rolling down the stairs
around the corner. Hitting them, too, should take care of any Combines around,
giving you the time to pick up some suit energy under the stairs. Watch out
for the incoming train, go up and kill two more Combines before it's time for
some serious fun: Pick up one of those explosive barrels (I hope you left at
least one) and move on. Two enemies will hop down to the rails behind the
force field. As they do, they are unable to attack, allowing you to somewhat
safely toss the barrel near them and shoot it.
Do you still have one of those red barrels intact? Great if you do, since you
can pick it up and drop it near the other force field now. Then go up the
stairs and step onto the metal bridge to trigger lots of Combine Soldiers
closing in from where you placed the explosive gift. Shoot it from here when
they are close to it (if you aren't that confident in your aiming skill,
place the barrel at the force field you are about to get past and shoot it
after going down). Break the crates ahead and go down to see some additional
Combines. If you want to you might get back up and to the medical energy
station to clear the whole area once and for all. The loads of ammo and the
medical panel should outweigh any risks here. Otherwise you can drop down
behind the force field and kill your enemies from here, but in this case much
of the ammo that's being dropped probably stays out of your reach as you
cannot get back to the other side of the force field. Now relax and restore
yourself at the new medical station and the small crates.
An alternative way of dealing with these hordes of Combine is to speed over
the metal bridge, run down and keep running to the left, avoiding any direct
battle with the humanoids, but if you choose this alternative you have a
rather hard time nabbing the suit armor inside the crates.
Jump into the water and enjoy the reflections on its surface until you reach
a red container. Climb up the ladder on its left to get in and meet part of
the resistance...and a nice vortigaunt alien, powering a TV with its
electrical power. ^^ Get some of its power to strengthen your suit and break
some obstacles outside to enter the next area.
[The Railway]
Crawl through the rubble, watch a Barnacle eating a raven and witness an
execution. There's still a survivor in the canal on your right so haste to
him before it's too...ok, it's too late, no matter what you do. Position
yourself on the rubble and take down the executioner on the far left as well
as another one coming around the right corner. Get around the corner yourself
and run for the stack of crates. Crouch after a few steps to hide from the
machine gun and quickly enter the canal on your right. Kill a lone Combine in
Underground Station 12 to gain access to lots of suit energy and the com
showing how drastically the rebels are being attacked. Climb up the ladder,
shoot the explosive barrel and take care of any survivors before taking
control of the machine gun yourself.
There will be few waves of Combine and Sentry Drones coming from two points
on the lower level and from two on the upper level, but as long as your
aiming is somewhat good and as long as you concentrate on the Combine you
shouldn't be in for a lot of trouble. Once the normal enemies are defeated, a
police car opens fire with heat-seeking missiles, so quickly leave the
machine gun and keep moving to not get hit. In case you need it, there is a
health pak near the stack of crates you used to hide behind a few moments ago.
Shoot the barrel on the levelled ledge to your right to lower the platform.
Follow the ledge to a lambda symbol. There's some health behind the red car
wreck. Avoid the Barnacles, but shoot the last one before reaching the
daylight again, as it blocks the path out. Listen to the only survivor of the
nearby rebel station and enter another canal.
Are you in for some killing? If the answer's yes, then look up and try to hit
the two Combine guards as often as possible before they run off to the right.
Follow them underground into a water basin and watch out for the burning
explosive barrels they drop down once you go for a swim. Either stay at the
surface a bit prior to diving out of the way of the explosions or climb out
of the water to avoid the explosion. Then look up again and finally dispose
the two bad guys.
If you don't want to kill them and just want to get along peacefully, ignore
them completely and speed through the canal.
Leave the canal, shooting a few more enemies either by hitting explosive
barrels or by attacking them while they jump down. Crouch behind the van to
see some more barrels at a bridge. Shooting these prevents some Combine to
appear after a few more moments. Move on and quickly dispose two Combine
dropping down on the left and on the right. Use the crowbar to push a
harmless barrel into the tentacles of the Barnacles up ahead and quickly pass
by when they pull it up, expecting some prey. Then grab one of the explosive
barrels and feed it to the mass of Barnacles that comes next. Stay near the
other barrel and shoot the thrown barrel twice when it is pulled up, so it
starts burning and explodes right at the aliens. Afterwards repeat for the
other barrel and move on.
Don't get out of the canal just yet. Instead watch the explosive "treat"
falling down into the water ahead. This is a warning, so be on your guard.
Jump into the water, hiding behind the wooden wall to dodge another barrel.
Then peek around the corner where an explosive barrel near some Combine
couldn't possibly be placed any better. It creates a big chain reaction,
leaving behind only one Combine at maximum. Climb up the ladder ahead and
swim on, ignoring a barrel being dropped behind you on your way. Walk up the
ramp and hide behind the wooden poles to have a better position against the
two Combines entering the action on the bridge. Hop from platform to platform,
only retreating once to dodge a barrel, to reach just another canal, yay...
[First Act for the Helicopter]
Put some concrete blocks onto the left side of the seesaw to enable yourself
to use it as a path up to the exit. Yikes, a helicopter! You'll deal with it
for quite a long time and it won't be a pleasant time. Slide down and hide
behind a wooden board on the right until the copter's first burst is over.
Then to the closed canal entrance in front of you and as the third hideout to
the Barnacle on your left. Afterwards open the door nearby and enter the
building. See that lambda below? Climb down a ladder to some goodies before
moving on. Crawl through the shallow water, shoot the explosive barrel in the
place with the low ceiling and pick up some stuff. Now pick up another
explosive barrel to feed it to a few Barnacles. Its remaining pieces should
distract the Barnacles further down the ramp, but if you're too slow, just
grab a normal barrel as a distraction. Slide down and repeat the whole
procedure against two more packs of Barnacles. Leave the building and quickly
sprint around the left corner, because the copter opens fire again, without
leaving you any good place to hide.
[Manhacks]
You'll reach another small outpost of the rebels, only held up by a single
man. After a short conversation some manhacks break through the door. Either
use the crowbar to quickly destroy them and rescue your ally or (as he
actually serves no purpose to you) stick with the pistol and move backwards
through the corridors while fighting the manhacks. This takes longer and it
uses ammo, but it saves health. Afterwards climb up the ladder to find some
goodies. Move on and attack three manhacks through a girder door. Eventually
they will find their way to you above the door, but then they should already
be damaged quite well. Hit an explosive barrel around the next corner twice
to aid you against some more of those pesky machinery things.
When you see the daylight, don't exit already, but go on to find a few
goodies. Only then step out and kill two Combines up above. Hear those
manhacks coming? The best thing to do now is to retreat into the corridor and
to close the door. There are five manhacks around, but they can't reach you
now. Take your time and shoot them through the door. Then go out again and
enter the next corridor. Ignore the barrel for now and crawl through the vent
on your left. You have to face a manhack in here, but the loads of supply
crates at the end of the vent are well worth it. Go back and blow up the
barrel as a Combine has positioned himself next to it.
Drop down and move on until some Combines rope down. Give the one nearby a
headshot and retreat behind the small stone edge. Wait for the other two guys
to come by the explosive barrel to have an easy time against them. Pick up
the SMG they dropped and place the other red barrel where the first one was
lying. There's a narrow passage behind the barrel: Crawl through, pick up
goodies and kill your first zombie. Then crawl back out to see another
Combine being triggered to rope down. Luckily you have placed a barrel right
next to him. You know what to do.
Time for a dive: Search for the underwater passage in which you have to
surface once to refill your energy. Then follow the pipe to two Combines
roping down again and to a Sentry Drone. The easy way now is to walk up the
stairs (watch out for the Barnacle) and to hop onto the pipe from there. This
path might be easier, but it also makes you pass up on some good stuff. If
you want that, step outside and face two Combines and two manhacks prior to
jumping onto the pipe. No matter which path you choose, you have to walk
along the pipe, wait for the steam to pause, destroy a manhack in a narrow
spot and dodge some Barnacles. The best way to get through here is to quickly
grab the barrel around the right corner, let it be pulled up by the first
Barnacle and to hit it twice on its way up.
Break the boards near the lambda sign to reach another place in the outside.
Equip the pistol to quickly get rid of the guard at the truck up ahead. As
you do, the truck unloads some explosive barrels which you should blow up in
midair. This takes care of another Combine nearby. Equip the SMG and go
around the corner to trigger three Combines. Retreat and try to deal with
them one by one. The dark corridor you have to follow now, contains two
niches with items, but also triggering two manhacks. The items are worth it,
though. Afterwards go to the end of the corridor and retreat backwards. A
bunch of manhacks will follow you, allowing for a great use of your grenade.
Use the SMG to deal with the rest while still walking backwards.
The next room has some nice goodies, but you will need them. Crawl through
the vent and after a bout 3 to 5 seconds you better start a big chain
reaction with those explosive barrels to clear the room of loads of manhacks.
Destroy any remaining with your crowbar. Climb up the ladder, jump onto the
pipe, go left and drop down to a passage leading to a room with another big
pool of water. Don't open the supply crate yet, if you can take a bit of
frustration and if you want some suit energy. I'll tell you what I mean in a
few sentences. Drop down from pipe to pipe to find a valve pumping more water
into the two rooms. Now pick up the crate and carry it over to the first room
where four manhacks have spawned in the meanwhile (is "spawn" actually the
correct term for manhacks after all?). Lay down the crate while fighting them.
Then pick it up again, jump into the water, climb up the ladder while only
seeing it at the left end of your screen (or else you cannot carry the crate
while moving up), hop onto the pipe and place the crate at the bend on your
left so you can use it to reach the bar directly in front of you and the vent
behind it. There is only one single suit energy item in the vent, so decide
for yourself whether this is worth all the hassle (and don't forget to bust
open the supply crate).
No matter how you decide, you have to swim down into a tunnel and break some
boards underwater in the other room. This makes some objects float at the
surface so you can use them to get up onto the ledge leading to the next area.
[Radioactive Man]
Get up the ladder, dispose a Sentry Drone and mentally prepare yourself for a
rather difficult fight. Jump down behind the fence, turn right and run in on
a manhack while shooting your SMG at it. Continue to a dead end, turn around
and destroy another manhack. Shortly after two Combines rush in, so I hope
you have taken care of both manhacks before. Use the SMG on these four
enemies. Go on, jump up via the barrel and let three manhacks taste your
crowbar before nabbing some items. Up ahead are even more goodies you can
earn by distracting a Barnacle with a barrel. Climb up another ladder and
feast on the two lambda symbol spots before dropping down on the other side
of the wall (watch out, though: I once got stuck and squished in midair when
dropping down here).
Return to the daylight. This time around it is gonna last for a while. Stay
away from the radioactive waste and traverse it on the pipes for some items.
Then move on at the lower level and assist a rebel against two headcrabs. The
crate on your right holds an infinite amount of SMG ammo. The next section is
best dealt with by advancing slowly, watching for all those headcrabs to
unbury themselves. There are also a few zombies mixed in, but as you can
always go back to pick up SMG ammo you can shoot around as wildly as you like
to. Close to the end of this place (which seems to have been a living place
for some rebels) you come across an electrified cable (wait for it to swing
right before running past it on the left) and an electrified container which
seems to be more of a problem than it really is. Only the container walls can
hurt; standing inside of it doesn't do anything. So go through it and stay in
it when a headcrab missile crashes down. The headcrabs will jump against the
container, dying instantly. Hehe.
After a short walk you arrive at a hovercraft garage of the rebels. Board
your new vehicle and ride along the radioactive river up to a shut gate on
your left. Get out of the hovercraft near the headcrab missile ahead and kill
one of those aliens behind the stack of boxes. Then open the gate and drive
through to the next chapter. Look closely to see a supply crate in the liquid,
which you should break open by driving over it.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.4 Chapter 4 - Water Hazard-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-CC4
[Station 12]
Disembark and climb up the ladder at the lambda symbol for some pistol ammo.
After a short bumpy ride you will see a big red house. Remember how you were
told to get there to seek help at station 12? Get off the hovercraft, enter
the house and...face two zombies. The Combine were faster than you. Use the
crowbar against these two foes as well as against a face hugger on the planks
below the ceiling. Climb up to the room that controls the block and pulley.
Hitting the barrel with the crowbar lets the cage fall down into the water,
releasing some goodies.
Ride over the ramp and come to a halt at the bridge on the right. A fellow
rebel drops some supplies before running away from a Sentry Drone. After
picking them up, grab the blue drum, take a dive and set the barrel beneath
the open cage. Leave the basin and go through the passage at the yellow
lambda symbol to find two more of those blue, light barrels. Place at least
one of them in the cage as well to build a ramp you can jump over with the
hovercraft.
New enemy crafts: These things that look like some sort of an alien-
helicopter-hybrid serve only as troop transporters at the moment, but later
in the game they will be way more annoying. Either stop on one of the small
islands and kill the three Combine from there, or simply drive over them,
taking a bit damage while approaching them. Afterwards place a barrel under
the opening with the lambda symbol next to it and swim through to reach a
zombie and some items. Move on with the hovercraft, crashing into three
Combines on the way and speeding over another ramp. Upon your landing you
drive through some thin wooden poles that hold a platform. See hoe the Source
Engine nicely crashes the whole construction? Don't you, too, think this is a
great sight? Perfect: Quickly race on and repeat this crash on the right side
to surprise two Combine soldiers. The Barnacles under the bridge shouldn't be
a problem to you.
[A Hero...wow]
Give another Combine an involuntary swim. The water way is blocked by a gate,
so disembark to search for a switch or something else. Climb up the ladder,
listen to Dr. Breen (yeah, we're a hero!) and pick up the items in the two
small rooms before peeking around the corner and shooting the explosive
barrel on the left and some Combines. See the grenade crate? This means you
can and should use grenades over the course of the next rooms. Toss some
through the windows near the manhacks, so only a few of them can get out of
there and attack you. Open the door and haste behind the wagon to your left,
as a Combine stands at a machine gun up ahead. Push the wagon forward while
crouching to eventually get close enough to the enemy to throw grenades at
him. Restock on grenades; you'll need them in the next room. After opening
the door, throw in two grenades and repeat. While this might not take care of
all Combines in there, it eases the situation a lot. Now storm in and finally
clear the area. Climbing over the blue tanks on your right earns you an SMG
grenade.
Outside you find the gate opening mechanism. Ok, it's broken, but at least
you've found it. Don't worry, though. Shoot the barrels behind the fence to
break open the gate. Then get back to the machine gun and use it to get rid
for four Combines. Back in the Combine garage you will have to face some more
Combines, but the infinite amount of grenades ought to make this battle
rather easy. Just watch out for the newly installed machine gun behind the
liquid barrier.
Return to the hovercraft and get going. The oncoming passage is crammed with
Combines, Barnacles and even missile-shooting police cars, but there isn't
anything good to nab. Ergo: Keep driving at high speed and move a bit to the
sides to dodge the missiles. After a right bend you will see a barricade
that's even being lit up. Stick to the right wall to get over a ramp. After
that stick to the left wall to be somewhat hid from the Combine cars.
[Comeback]
Stop at the lambda symbol, taking the concrete blocks out of the basket. This
lowers the other basket, which contains some items. Hop into the hovercraft
again and ride out into the open, where the gate is shut down and you are
being shot at. Ignore the Combine; drive to the door on the right, pick up
the Magnum inside and aim it at the door behind the table. Three Combines
open it, but your new weapon quickly takes 'em out.
Prepare for what is the most difficult area so far: Remember how I said the
copter would bother you for a long time? Now he really is after you. Go up
the stairs and keep on running as you shoot a Combine. Also kill the next
Combine at full speed and then hide in the container from the copter fire.
Here you should also take care of the manhack. When the copter fire ceases,
run out of the container and move on. Hit the third Combine and hide inside
the big container where you can also take the time to pick up some supplies.
Leave the container on its other end to face two Combines, guarding a supply
crate. During the whole course of running around in this area you should keep
an eye on the position of the copter and on when it is about to fire, so you
can crouch behind any objects to hide.
Now haste into a storage hall past some manhacks. Fire your SMG grenade at
the two Combines up on the left and equip the crowbar when standing just
beneath them. Destroy the manhacks, before the other Combines in this hall
close in on you. Shooting them down probably is the easiest part of this area.
Then search inside the containers and the rest of the hall for lots of items
and advance by walking up the stairs and hopping onto the containers. As soon
as you see that you've triggered three Combines up ahead, drop down and hide
from them, allowing you to eliminate two other guards entering the hall from
the big gate you came through. Then aim up and finally clear the area.
Behind the place where the three Combines came from, you have to duck under
some windows to get past the copter slowly, but safely. Break the crates with
the crowbar and throw a grenade against the wall in the next room in such a
way that it bounces off to the right, killing an enemy. If you attack him the
direct way, two more Combines would rush up the stairs, causing quite some
trouble in this tight place and with your health probably being a bit low by
now. But since you (hopefully) used the grenade to get him, his buddies won't
notice you, allowing for you to slowly move down (after picking up some
health) and carefully aim for their head from behind. Relax at the health and
suit energy panels, as your way gets you back into the copter's sight.
Run out and around the right corner to find a grenade in a supply crate. Then
carefully observe the copter to hide successfully on your way to the upper
right end of the court where a single Combine awaits you. From here on there
isn't much to take cover so simply zip over to the guard tower, killing a
Combine behind the fence and two more up inside the tower. Duck behind the
windows so the copter can't hit you and in between the bursts you have to get
up and counterattack with the machine guns around until your flying nemesis
parts off. Hit the switch to open the gate and return to the hovercraft by
jumping over the railing.
Speed through the gate only to be facing another copter. This one doesn't
only have a machine gun, but also proximity mines. Stick on the right wall as
you haste through this canal. Race up the ramp and move right on it to
proceed. Directly after that the copter employs his machine gun, so head for
the passage on the right in which you are safe from that attack.
[A Bumpy Ride]
Take a left, speeding directly to the copter. It drops quite a lot of miens
now, so you might want to stay right of the enemy. After a while you will see
a broken ship on the right and a pile of dead trees on your left. Ride over
the trees to cut the track short. A bit later you see some concrete tunnel
pieces up ahead. Before heading there, take a left and drive over the supply
crate. It's worth it. Then go through the tunnel pieces and try your best to
stay in the centre of the track so you jump onto some more of those pieces,
leading into a real tunnel.
[Even Bumpier]
Break open the two supply crates ahead and move on up to two dead trees lying
there as a ramp. Naturally, you have to ride it up, but as you do, try your
best to fly off to the left at its end. If you manage to land on the left
ledge you automatically dodge most of the mines and you get to feast on
another supply crate. Take a right and fully concentrate on going fast and on
dodging the mines; there's only one supply crate on the way and you pick up
the goodies inside almost automatically as the passage is narrow and gets
even narrower due to a mine dropped right next to the crate. Stay left under
the first bridge to avoid some Barnacles, then go right and stay on the right
under the second bridge. Keep your balance on the way up to the ramp so you
fly over to the red storage building.
Ride into it and park on the metal platform to your right. Get out of the
hovercraft to break open some supply crate and to use the stations on the
wall, while always listening for the sound the copter makes just before using
the machine gun. Also activate the valve to lower the platform (you might
have to park the vehicle a few times before it finally moves down with the
platform, due to some strange clipping). Hop down and get back into the
hovercraft. Behind you is a supply crate with some health in it, but you
should already be at good health, so ignore it. It was probably only placed
there for if you miss the jump over to the red building. Instead, move on.
Keeping a good speed and staying left will get you past the collapsing
factory chimney without having to search for a way to get over it. Then stay
right to avoid the first few mines. Dodging the other mines and the missiles
shouldn't be too much of a problem now. Speed into the tunnel in front of you.
[Payback]
Get off the hovercraft, nab some health in a crate on the right and then some
more in the dark area, guarded by a zombie. Climb up the ladder, hop over to
the washing machine, which you need to push down into the cage where the
supply crate lied. This raises a ramp you can ride over. Move on to another
rebel outpost where you get a copter gun attached to the hovercraft after a
short conversation.
Move out and test your new gun on some Barnacles and even already on a copter.
Fortunately your gun makes the copter flee in no time. Then shoot some
explosive barrels and a watch tower on the right for some health. Continue to
two open gates right after one another. They close as you are in between, but
don't worry: Just position yourself at the second gate, turn around and hit
the explosive barrel to take out three of four Combines. Shoot the other one
before turning left where three more enemies will rush out of a door. While
it is possible to get up to where the four enemies came from, it is
completely unnecessary as there is nothing to pick up. Instead, ride up the
broken fence and disembark. There are quite some goodies in the room where
the three Combine came out.
Get back into the hovercraft and speed through the fence ahead right into the
metaphorical arms of a police van. Don't slow down; ride around the bend as
quickly as possible and shoot the heat-seeking missiles to take them out. Now
ride up the ramp to pick up some health and to make the instable tower
construction collapse. Around the next bend you will face some more Combines,
but they are no match for your new gun. Hit the explosive barrels and after
that some Combines in the tunnel. Again, it is possible to get up to the
ledges, but the scarce items around here aren't worth the risk.
[Close to the real Payback]
Do yourself a favour and ignore the Combine on the far left, even though
there is a tempting red barrel next to him. Instead, swiftly advance, only
concentrating on the missiles you should blow up in midair. Shoot the Combine
transporter in the next passage. Now relax a bit, train your aiming on some
Barnacles and...wait a second! It's him! Up on the left you can see the G Man
for a brief moment.
Get off near a Combine and walk around the passage until you see a zombie
standing up. Equip the pistol, retreat a few feet and kill five headcrabs and,
of course, the zombie, prior to climbing up the ladder to a sleeping place
that holds some items.
Get back into the hovercraft and ride up the pile of dirt to reach a ramp.
After traversing the tunnel, shoot some more Combines and drive to what seems
to be a dead end. Look up as you, since a Combine and an infinite amount of
explosive barrels will be triggered. The barrels can actually be pretty much
ignored as there isn't anything around that could blow them up. After a few
more Combines and a tunnel you see two red containers ahead. Inside one of
them you can nab some items.
Then ride into the big open space and keep moving around while shooting two
police vans. Definitely concentrate on one of them until it blows up, before
attacking the other one. Also don't bother hitting the missiles: It is nearly
impossible to hit every missile of both cars and in addition you better
destroy the vehicles as quickly as possible. Once the area is secure, break
two crates in the water between the cars and move on to the highly dented
orange container on the left for another crate. Disembark to get through a
tight hole in the fence near the other container. Blow up the barrels inside
the container to allow for the hovercraft to get through. Jump over the ramp.
[Duel at Noon]
A large open area and not a single threat around. Come on, we all know that
there has to be something big coming and yes: There is. You finally get to
destroy one of those helicopters. Give it all you've got, only stopping when
the copter fires back at you. Hide behind some rocks for a few seconds when
that happens. After a while the enemy starts dropping mines as well, but if
you look at the path the copter takes while dropping them, you can easily
tell where it will fly to over the next few seconds, as it drops his
explosive treats only in a straight line. Then a bit later again, the copter
totally freaks out, dropping hundreds of mines. Still look at where he flies
and calculate where he is going to fly to and simply move a few feet away
from that line. The other mines will fall down far away from that line, so
you're in nearly no danger.
Afterwards look around for some supply crates, prior to closing in on the
shut gate. Climb up the ladder to find the valve that opens it. If you're in
for a little treat, then head straight through the gate with the hovercraft
until you reach two pipes with bars on them. Park the hovercraft right in
front of the left one, so you can use it to get up and through the open
lattice. Quickly jump through the toxic waste until you reach a cave on the
left where you'll find a singing Vortigaunt doing some BBQ and hiding some
supplies. Thanks to Warlock1307 for this easteregg. Next, ride up the ramp
behind putside with your hovercraft to ease the battle against some Combines
in front of the big building. Go in to find a lightly guarded Combine station,
crammed with everything you need.
Leave the building and get to its back where you will not only see the G Man
again, but also a lever which opens the flood gate. Board the hovercraft and
use the rubble in the water to jump through the gate into the next chapter.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.5 Chapter 5 - Black Mesa East-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC5
[Arrival]
Leave the hovercraft behind at the dock and search for the entrance to the
rebel headquarters. Judith Mossman takes you straight to Alyx and Dr. Vance.
Listen to the dialogues; unfortunately there isn't much around here to keep
you entertained. At least get a look at the family photo of the Vances before
Alyx takes you over to the scrapyard where you will get to practice with the
gravity gun. Taking a right in the tunnel makes her give you some additional
info on Ravenholm...a place they don't go to anymore...
[D0g]
You are given the gravity gun...or the zero-point energy gun, if you prefer.
First use it to push some things, then to pick up stuff, then to pull the
barrels high up towards you and finally to stack some objects, allowing you
to get up to Alyx. The easiest way to do this is to put the small box on the
right onto the bigger box.
Follow Alyx to meet D0g, her robotic pet. Keep the secondary fire button
pressed as you play fetch with him, so you don't risk getting hit by the
crates or later by his ball. When you have had enough of plying around, go to
Alyx to trigger an assault by the Combine.
Alyx takes you back into the tunnel system where you get separated, being
told to go to Ravenholm (I thought we don't go to Ravenholm? So why is D0g
supposed to follow Alyx and you aren't? Can't D0g just clear the path from
the rubble? Oh well.). Push some obstacles out of the way and break the lock
on the ladder using the gravity gun to reach Ravenholm.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.6 Chapter 6 - "We don't go to Ravenholm..."=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC6
[Physics can be fun]
Welcome to Ravenholm, a forsaken place infested by headcrabs and their
buddies. Go straight to the hung lower body part to find a lone zombie. After
killing him with the crowbar, it's time to enjoy the gravity gun. Enter the
hut to your left, containing lots of gas tanks and metal blades. Use mostly
the latter ones to fire your way through some zombies until you hear a human
voice. You will meet this guy later on, but for now he's rather unimportant.
Approach the spinning thing ahead. This triggers two zombies to walk right
into it, being torn apart by it. If the trap makes you feel uncomfortable
(e.g. in case you might consider retreating after a fight) you can crawl to
it and turn it off. Otherwise carry a metal blade with you, crawl past the
trap and activate another trap in the next room, while crouching. There's
only one headcrab directly in this room, but in the left corner is an opening
with some more zombies. Just lure them into the trap and you should be doing
fine. The table holds a new metal blade and some health. As you move on you
will face a few more headcrabs and zombies which should taste your metal
blade as well or maybe an explosive barrel, but the spin trap in the next
room is quite useless as activating it would require you to run right into an
enemy-infested area.
Toss anything at the zombie sitting outside to clear the way to see Grigori
for the first time. Approach the fire to trigger him appearing as well as
some zombies of which your new ally takes care of. Kill a lone zombie to the
left of the bonfire and turn the valve that controls the gas, thus
extinguishing the fire. To proceed you have to enter the building in which
Grigori was, but first of all you better enter another hut nearby, guarded by
two zombies. Inside you will find some gas tanks, metal blades and health
paks. Turn on the gas and press the red switch for some fun. Grab one of
those gas tanks, extinguish another fire via a gas valve and use your
explosive treat on some zombies around the corner.
As the fence is electrically loaded, you cannot move on here, yet, so return
to the first fire and enter the building. Shooting the explosive barrel on
the upper level should take care of most enemies here and the crowbar does
the rest. Climb up onto the left energy generator to reach a vent shaft
leading to some goodies. Get back in and walk up the stairs. Ignore the first
explosive barrel, but blow up the second one and deal with any survivors at
the end of the staircase. Traverse a few more rooms to finally find the lever
that turns off the electricity at the fence. Watch out for two new enemies,
though: Poisonous headcrabs. If you are confident about your aiming skills
you can use the gravity gun on them, otherwise employ the pistol.
As you leave the building you have to face three more of those. Then climb up
the ladder over the fence and eventually get up onto the roofs where you get
even closer to Grigori than before. Drop down onto the planks and into the
room at their end. The gas tanks here actually aren't a big help, as tossing
them around with the gravity gun is too dangerous and lighting them up after
dropping them down probably misses all enemies. Just use the gravity gun
against the headcrabs while standing in the upper room and the crowbar
against the zombie after dropping down. Leave the building. Yay, a new trap:
Your priest friend has attached some cars (!) to block and pulleys. Attract
the enemies to go under the cars and activate the switches to smash them.
Some will probably get past the cars, requiring you to either use the crowbar
or the pistol.
Once the area is clear, make the first car go down, jump onto it and go over
the planks to get into a good position for a jump over to the yellow lambda
symbol. To get back out of this hidden place you have to climb over the
girder at the right wall. Use the second car to enter another building and to
reach the next loading sequence.
[A Heavily Infested Court]
Behind the door you'll both find some very tempting barrels and a poisonous
headcrab. Still, don't blow up the barrels, but use the gravity gun against
this foe. Waiting for the explosion takes too long here. Enter the next room,
shoot a zombie and watch Father Grigory take out lots of zombies outside.
Briefly climb out of the window to lure some of them into the priest's line
of fire. Then use the gravity gun against two fast headcrabs on the ledge
opposite of the windows. Look down: Lost of enemies around, right? Well,
simply blow up one of the barrels on the right and use the gravity gun on the
barrel to the far left to (hopefully) clear the area without getting near any
enemy. Then carefully drop down (killing the survivors, in case there are any)
and blow up the barrel behind a screen to access the hideout of some poor guy
who has been overrun by a couple of poisonous headcrabs.
Climb up the ladder at the other end of the passage and walk over the girder
not to the first window, but to the one on the left. Deal with a single
headcrab that is guarding some items. Kill a zombie at the other window
(using the pistol, as the crowbar is too dangerous up here) and get into the
building. Prepare for some fun: There are lots of objects to be grabbed and
tossed and down the stairs you will face lots of zombies. So use the gravity
gun on anything you can find to wipe out the enemies.
[New Faces]
Thought Ravenholm wasn't so scary after all? Grab the items around prior to
leaving the building. Look straight...see something coming your way? That's
some freakin' fast mutant and his companions will surely panic you a few
times. Use the SMG on them; the gravity gun takes too long. After celebrating
your first kill of a super zombie, walk over to the left and hop down to the
rails, disposing a total of three headcrabs and three zombies, all with the
gravity gun to save precious ammo.
Enter the centre building with your gravity gun equipped to wipe out two
zombies on the ground level, a zombie and two headcrabs behind the wooden
boards on the first storey, two zombies (guarding health paks) behind the
door on the first storey and then again another one of those easy targets
crawling about on the ground level. Go to the top storey to crush to
headcrabs before being given the shotgun by Grigori outside.
Either use it against a troop of super zombies or simply aim for the water
tank ahead and jump into it. This way the enemies ignore you, leaving Grigori
to take them out. Climb up to trigger some additional super zombies. If you
are quick about it, you can grab a hold on some gas tanks in the room nearby
to deal with them. Otherwise use the shotgun and consider backtracking for
health paks after the battle. Call the lift in the room with the gas tanks.
See two super zombies climb up again? Shutting the door seems like a good
idea, but unfortunately it doesn't help a bit: They just break through the
ceiling, so you have to fight them anyway (use the shotgun).
Ride down the lift and kill any poisonous headcrabs the fat zombie throws at
you, with the gravity gun or simply walk over the ramp on the other car
directly to get out their reach. Dealing with the fat zombie himself is both
too dangerous and a waste of ammo, so don't do it in any case. Clear the
small goodie room ahead from a single headcrab, restock and leave the area.
[Big Battle]
This set of alleys holds nearly no items, but an infinite amount of all kinds
of zombies and headcrabs (except for super zombies). Even the door in front
of you that can be opened from the other side is totally useless. Hence, only
go for the important places and try to be as quick about it as possible...oh,
and the spinning trap also is of no big help, since it breaks apart after a
few spins. Still, head for the trap and look right. There is a small balcony
with a lever and you have to pull the latter one. Go to the back of the
building and up to the lever. Then drop down and turn right where you can
climb up onto the small building there. Move on over planks and roofs, but
watch out for a super zombie that has been triggered to come after you.
For the moment, you are quite safe up on the roofs. Some poisonous headcrabs
eventually leap up, but that's it. Pick up some goodies on the roofs, hop
over the platform you have moved via the lever and note that you have just
left safety again. Speed over to a balcony above the entrance to this area
and climb through the window as most of the balcony collapses. Now you have
the time to turn around and see why you hastened through there: Infinite
super zombies! Shoot them from a distance, watch Grigori fire at them or just
move on; it's up to you, as they somehow cannot get to your position. The
upcoming passage is pure relieve. Pick up the saw blades via the gravity gun
and fire off at lots of normal zombies.
[King of the Hill]
Go down the stairs on the left to get back to a goodie room you already
visited a few minutes ago. You've probably left some items here the last time,
so the lone zombie guarding it shouldn't hinder you from going there. Next,
throw a grenade up the ladder as a direct battle with the three headcrabs up
there is pretty health consuming. Leave through the door, give two super
zombies a taste of your shotgun shells and hop from roof roof until you can
safely drop down. Run past the poisonous headcrabs and their big mate and
walk up the stairs just next to a headcrab missile. As you proceed, a super
zombie climbs up from behind, so await him with the shotgun.
Shortly after, you will find yourself on a roof. Turn right to see Father
Grigori, who tells you to defend yourself while he brings over a cart that
will get you over to him. Grab the ammo around and look straight down the
street. From time to time super zombies will come along here, climbing up
either the left or the right red pipe. Watch where they are going and
position yourself on top of a pipe accordingly to shoot them down in their
attempt to get up. Luckily you basically can only hit their head in this
situation and they cannot dodge your attacks, so this should be rather easy
to you. Another nice aid by the designers is that you can clearly hear those
beasts climbing up, so even if you have overlooked one of them, you will know
that it is coming. Since there are infinite zombies coming your way, you
better jump into the cart as soon as possible (Grigori is definitely taking
his time, though) and release the hand brake on the roof right next to the
cart. Stock up on items, listen to the somewhat crazy priest and follow him
to the next area.
[Tales from the Crypt]
After a short walk past the fence you are attacked by numerous super zombies.
Keep moving around as you first of all kill any enemies that go after you.
Grigori can take quite a lot of damage, so only help him out when you are
safe or if he has to deal with three enemies at once while you are only
pestered by a single one.
Then over another fence and onto the graveyard. Equip the gravity gun and use
it against lots of normal zombies. You will find many saw blades and concrete
blocks and in addition Grigori helps out a lot, so you really don't need to
waste any ammo. Your main task should be to look out if any enemies come from
behind. Once your back is clear you can have a look if it is necessary to
help Grigori. Watch out with those explosive barrels and you probably won't
have any problems here. At the end your ally opens a gate for you to crawl
through while he stays back to watch over his people...yeah, whatever. If you
want to, stay there for a while and watch Grigori kill lots of zombies or
just move on.
[The Mines]
Look down the shaft. There are wooden bars at the walls, which can be used to
carefully drop down. Fall from bar to bar until you come to some health paks.
Turn left to find some supply crates in a small room. Carefully drop down to
the ground where an infinite amount of different headcrabs roams around. Thus,
quickly run over to some stairs near a blocked tunnel, walk up the stairs and
jump over to the bars on top of the gate. Try to stay up there, so you can
easily shoot the (non-infinite) headcrabs below with the pistol. Also use the
explosive barrel to your advantage. If you happen to fall down behind the
gate, equip the gravity gun, clear the area and ignore the barrel; it's too
dangerous.
Across the gap you can see some health and ammo. In order to get them you
have to quickly step over the bar on the right, as it breaks apart when you
do. Down in the water you better not turn on the flash light. There's near to
nothing to see and you need quite some air to get through. Surface near the
Branacle tentacle, jump over the wooden gate and dive on to a long tunnel,
leading to the surface. Turn on the mine cart which will constantly ride up
and down, being a threat both to you and any enemy. Walk up to bait a few
zombies following you out of a niche on the left. Go back to watch them being
overrun by the cart, then go into the niche yourself. This triggers some more
zombies up ahead, as well as some more as you go into the second niche. At
the end of the cart path you will face your last zombies before running up
into the sunlight.
[Daylight]
Wonder what Valve had in mind for you once you reach the daylight for the
first time after leaving Ravenholm? It's, it's, IT'S...a railroad
track...oh....wow.
Besides the health on your left and some supply crates you can also grab some
good ammo by climbing over the crates to your right, disposing a poisonous
headcrab and crawling in at the yellow lambda symbol. As you move on, a super
zombie starts its long way towards you. Without the darkness and with so much
time for preparations they kinda've lost their scary impact. Blast him with
the shotgun. A few moments later you will see three zombies being taken out
by a Combine sniper up in the bridge-like construction. Wait until he's done
with them and then toss a grenade into the sniper's window. Don't worry: He
cannot hit you unless you go out too far.
Another sniper, but this time you are right in his area of view. Hide behind
the train, wait for him to shoot, then run over to the crates on the right,
again wait for him to shoot, advance a few feet and after that hide behind
the next wagon (the one with the wood on it). Do yourself a favour and don't
try to be too smart, by picking up some junk with the gravity gun, using it
as a shield; a single sniper hit will break through the object right into
your body. Crawl along under it on the left and kill a headcrab with the
gravity gun. The rest is fairly simple. Move around the red wagon on its left
side and throw a grenade up into the window. Inside the wagon you can find
some ammo.
Pass the dark area to witness a small battle between two Combines and some
aliens. Don't just watch it, though, but manipulate it to your advantage:
Blast the soldiers with the shotgun while they are distracted. The remaining
zombie and headcrab are a pushover for your shotgun. Grab the pulse-rifle in
the container. Out in the open you trigger two Combines to enter the yard on
the left and another one to come along the rails up ahead. Light up the
explosive barrels on the left and retreat back into the tunnel, so only the
lone Combine in front of you can possibly hit you. Use the pulse-rifle
against him and eventually against the two others if they survive the barrel
explosion. Go around the train wreck and onto the yard to trigger two more
Combine coming out of the building ahead. Pick up a barrel with the gravity
gun and toss it at them. Then enter the building where you witness another
battle; this time between four Combines and a few rebels. Assist them (you
know who I mean). The rest is only conversation and restocking.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.7 Chapter 7 - Highway 17=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-CC7
[Antlions]
Enter the buggy (See the ammo crate at its back? There's unlimited SMG ammo
in it.) which will be set down by the crane automatically. Also note that the
buggy can be put back up if it gets knocked down, by using the gravity gun.
As you might have already heard, it's mating season for the antlions. You
don't risk being humped like when meeting Lamarr, but these big insects crawl
out of the sand, afterwards trying to assault you via jump attacks.
Unfortunately there's an infinite amount of those creatures in the ground, so
you should hurry and get away from the beach. Since there is absolutely
nothing to find anywhere near the beach, just follow the shore on the right
until you get to a cliff near a pier. Once you have driven up there you are
completely safe from the antlions. Take your time to jump over the gap up
ahead (use the turbo by pressing Ctrl as the standard key config). Search for
items in the hut and drive through the tunnel.
[Gunship #1]
Head back to the beach past the cliff ramp on the right and quickly move on
to the machinery on the far left. It may resemble an oil pump, but it
actually serves as an antlion blocker. Those pesky creatures cannot come near
it...when it is turned on, that is. You can shut it down, but why would you?
Ok, except for some antlion annoyance: Turn it off, watch the enemies close
in and turn it back on again. ^^
Go over to the house and to the cellar entrance on the right. Swiftly clear
the opening with the gravity gun as this spot is out of reach of the antlion
blocker. Hop down to be safe from the insects again. Kill a poisonous
headcrab (gravity gun) on the upper level, before getting up yourself. Go
over to the chimney (there's an SMG grenade in there) which triggers a fat
zombie. Simply drop down and make use of the grenade crate. Time to leave the
house through the main entrance.
Drive through the thin wooden fence and haste along the beach to the next
antlion blocker. Get off the buggy, pick up everything in the barn (there is
an SMG grenade on the truck) and walk up the stairs to the main house. Inside
you have to prove yourself against two Combine (shotgun) and another one that
is triggered outside the house in the meantime. Activate the zoom station (or
send me a better term for it ^^) to realize the Combine are already watching
a rebel outpost you are heading for. Speed on in your buggy, only stopping
for a Combine squad at an antlion blocker. The buggy cannon shreds the patrol
apart in no time. Simply "reel in" the two supply crates with the gravity gun
instead of jumping down.
After reaching the repel outpost, get off the buggy, search for items in the
various buildings and only then enter the basement of the big house (one of
your allies will show you to it after a while if you can't find it for any
reason). You are handed out the bazooka, given the perfect chance to practice
with it as a gunship appears outside. You have already seen some of these in
Water Hazard, but now they are armed...highly armed. Go up the stairs to the
balcony and fire off a missile. Not directly at the gunship, though. Then
wait for it to get behind the gunship and steer it in on your adversary. This
way you will probably get hurt quite a bit, but since you'll find loads of
medi kits around, it is more important to strike as hard as you can. Gunships
can blow up your missiles in midair if they hit them; that's why you need to
play with them. When you run out of missiles first look in the basement, then
in the small hut near the basement entrance, then inside the garage and if
you still haven't won the battle you should look inside the second to largest
house. One of your allies eventually gives medi kits to you and another one
gives new missiles to you.
Once you're done, restock and talk to the colonel in the basement to get the
gate opened. Board the buggy, approach the gate and get off the vehicle again
to let your suit be powered up by a vortigaunt. Then ride on.
[Magnet Power]
Try to break open the first supply crate ahead (at the crash site) from a
distance with the secondary fire of your buggy cannon. If you really need it
you might also get off for the second one and open with the gravity gun, but
this is pretty risky. Ride on on the right strip of sand until you see a
Combine buggy being crashed on the left. Shoot the two Combines trying to
escape from a distance as well as the other one on the pier on the right.
Then position the buggy near the crane and disembark. Activate the antlion
blocker. Walk up, equip the shotgun and go around the container to face a
Combine. Another one has spawned near the antlion blocker. Open the supply
crates before climbing up the ladder to kill two more Combines. Use the
pulse-rifle on the remaining enemy on the crane.
Find another supply crate inside a container prior to entering the crane
platform. Lower the ladder on the right to create a quick path you can take
if you have to reposition the buggy. Why reposition it? Well, you have to use
the crane's magnet to carry the buggy up to the warehouse nearby. As you turn
the magnet over to the building, three Combines open the gate and rush
outside, desperately trying to hit you. Relax and take your time thinking of
fun ways to dispose of them. Drop the buggy, grab a container, swing the
magnet, etc.. Then hit the bridge with the crane to lower it and go over it
towards your buggy. Hit the explosive barrels behind the gate to rid the hall
of three enemies and activate the switch at its end. See the map? Seems like
the Combine know about all the rebel outposts.
Drive through the newly opened gate and decide whether you want to act like
some movie hero or like your typical Ego-Shooter hero: Either drive past the
four Combines, into the next hall and up the ramp through the window, or halt
nearby and clear the area before driving up the ramp. Either way you should
stop after the jump to break open a supply crate. Continue on the street
along the cliffs.Boost over the gap and ignore the gunship for the moment;
the buggy gun is totally useless against it. Stop near some car wrecks
blocking the path and give the insectoid copter a taste of your rockets. Medi
kits and rockets are scattered around, the latter one even in a bottomless
crate. After your victory, toss the obstacles down the cliff or at least
somehow out of the way, employing the gravity gun and drive on. Stop at the
blue van for some supplies.
[Mines]
Oh, how nice. Isn't that D0g's ball? Kinda! These things really are
intelligent mines that will electrify Gordon or explode in water or near an
explosion. Hence disembark, equip the gravity gun and play fetch with the
ocean. Near two car wrecks you will have to destroy two more of them and
after a little while, guess what, three of them.
Approach the shack in your buggy. Its cannon will definitely be of great help
against the three Combines. Get off, open the back door of the house and
climb into the buggy again as you have just triggered three more of your
nemesis. Search the whole estate for goodies, but watch out for two Combines
being triggered as you close in on the supply crates in the loft.
Drive on, disposing off three Combines almost already by simply shooting a
truck that's loaded with explosive barrels. Then disembark near a pile of
wrecks that block the path and pick up the crossbow on the small hill. Use it
to take out at least one of the enemies in the provisional Combine outpost up
ahead. Clear the street, drive near the force field and pick up a barrel with
the gravity gun. Go straight and just around the corner to see lots of
Combine near a police car. Toss the barrel over and repeat with another one
before retreating to your buggy. Stay on the bridge and wait for your
opponents to show up so you can snipe them away one by one with the crossbow.
Use the pulse-rifle in case you run out of ammo. Afterwards easily deal with
two mines, search for items and then push the police van away as it powers
the force field.
[Leaving the Buggy]
Roll over the stupid Combine that comes running out of the small house. Then
approach the small settlement, disembark and clear the first house on the
right. Luckily, this won't trigger any other enemies to head for you.
Afterwards run to the left-most house and kill the lone enemy while you keep
running. A few enemies will appear behind you in the meantime, so the house
provides some cover for you. Once you have killed everyone, enter the big
house, place a table or anything else under the broken stairs and get up.
Besides some items you will also find a fat zombie here, but he shouldn't
cause any problems; run past him. Outside is a path leading down and to the
underside of the bridge. Ignore the headcrab and the fat zombie.
[The Bridge]
Walk straight to some stairs. Either go up for some health and suit energy or
just directly get outside. Drop down onto the girder platform and proceed on
the bars, only watching out a bit for the Barnacle. Give the headcrab inside
the shack a taste of physics, pick up some stuff and again proceed on the
metal bars up to a platform with a ladder both leading down to some medi kits
and up to another shack. Step out, snipe at two Combine on your right, climb
up the ladder in front of you and drop down on the bars at the end of the
walkway. Advance to the next shack, kill two headcrabs with the gravity gun
(I wonder why they didn't attack the Combine) and take the right walkway to
reach the end of the bridge. Look for a supply crate before entering the
bridge's interior.
Move on until you see an explosive barrel standing on a platform to your left.
Wait in the entrance and blow up the barrel to get two Combine caught under
some metal bars. Step onto them and shoot another enemy with the shotgun.
Return to the entrance, look up and defeat quite a lot of Combine with the
pulse-rifle. Killing them a bit later face to face is too dangerous and
tossing grenades at them rarely succeeds as they dodge them. Then open the
supply crate nearby, traverse the room, go outside and take out a lone guard
high up on a sentry turret with the crossbow. Climb up and look for two more
supply crates and eventually any Combine survivors. Walk up the stairs in
another room and throw a grenade through the force field to hopefully kill
two Combine. If they survive, stay back and welcome them with the shotgun
once they leave the room. The grenade has already lowered the force field (if
you haven't got any grenades, simply use the gravity gun on the
plug...talking about high tech), so restock at the wall panels and activate
the switch which deactivates a force field near your buggy.
Get back down, killing two Combine as you quickly run back to the entrance of
the bridge's interior. Why quickly? There's a gunship on your track. Haste
over to the first shack via the walkway, hide there for a moment and the
REALLY haste over the bars and broken platforms over to the platform with the
ladder that leads up to another small hut. Don't think too much on your way
there, just look down at the platforms and mainly aim for the broken
platforms lying on the bars. The path is relatively straight forward, so you
can do it. Oh and watch out for the Barnacle. Enter the hut and walk outside
to begin the battle with the gunship. Luckily your opponent will circle your
platform mostly staying close to you, so he rarely gets a chance to blow up
your missiles in midair. Afterwards, climb down the ladder to where you
hopefully still have some medi kits left. Then back onto the medium storey
and up the other ladder. Follow the walkway to its end, switch over to the
metal bars and advance to the next shack. Now only along the left walkway and
after a quick drop nearly straight ahead you are back to the exit of the
bridge.
[Back to the Buggy]
Watch the scene a bit until you feel like the path is somewhat clear. Equip
the gravity gun, ignore the fat zombie if he still lives and push any other
enemies out of the way as you run by. Equip the pulse-rifle once you are back
up at the houses and take cover in one of them as four Combine await you.
Board the buggy (admit: You've missed it...right?) and ride up the steep path
near the rocks onto...another railway. Valve really loves those, eh? Speed
past the train and as you hear another tarin approaching from ahead, either
boost through or switch to reverse and wait for the train to pass by. Then
drive up the broken bridge into a tunnel to reach the next chapter.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.8 Chapter 8 - Sandtraps=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC8
[Battery Search]
Crash through the first zombie, shoot another one while he still lays on the
ground and disembark. Don't worry; it's not for too long. Open a supply crate
on the right (you probably need it at the moment). Crawl through a vent and
kill two headcrabs with the gravity gun for a lot more good stuff. Cute how
the zombie bangs at the window, isn't it? Leave the room and kill him as well
as another one behind the fence. This triggers three super zombies to rush in
on you. Retreat to the buggy. Its gun will shred any enemy apart in no time,
so also use it against some normal zombies eventually showing up. Then clear
the path via gravity gun and ride out of the tunnel.
Surprise two Combine in front of the house by hitting them hard with your
buggy gun. Get off, break open the supply crate and enter the building at its
back. As you search for goodies, equip the gravity gun, because on the
highest storey two mines will fall down a hole in the ceiling. Grab one of
them, toss it into another corner of the room and then pick up the other one,
throw it against a window and through it. Now also grab the first one again
and throw it out as well. As you walk back to the buggy three more mines come
crashing down; simply repeat the procedure.
Drive on to a Combine outpost. Eliminate the guard on the tower with the
buggy gun, disembark and toss two mines away down the beach. Don't take the
path the Combine had in mind for you; instead walk around the barricade on
the left, enter the house, grab the radiator with the gravity gun and use it
to kill two Combine which expected you to come along the street. Leave the
house where you entered it and look up at the barricade to see another
Combine. Still carry the radiator with you, walk over to the entrance of the
outpost and wait for an enemy to leave the base and run right into your arms.
Again, grab the radiator and walk over to the shack where the last enemy
awaits you. Use the health panel if you need it and then drive on. Try to
avoid those yellow-black striped ground panels which are likely to stop you,
requiring you to disembark and push the car out of the trap.
Drive on until you see a crashed truck in your way. Ride up the little hill
to the right of it at full speed (no turbo boost) to get past it. Disembark.
Two gunships will come by, but luckily they won't attack you directly (or at
least not that hard as they usually do), but drop down five Combine behind
the gate up ahead and two mines before the gate. Throw the latter one into
the water and climb back into the buggy before the real enemies close in on
you. Have the buggy stand just behind the truck to have the whole street in
sight. The Combine come in from the left (only one) and just above the cliffs
on the right (four of them). The buggy gun should easily deal with this
situation. Now look around for items (there are lots of them) as well as for
two batteries you need to insert into the gate console inside the house. One
of the batteries lies on top of the mill (throw something up there or shoot
the objects on the mill) and the other is on the bed in the house. Proceed
into the tunnel.
[The Light House]
Ah, finally: The light house. Proceed to the rebel outpost and park the buggy
in the garage to your left as you are told to. Head for the stone wall behind
the garage, hide there and equip the pulse-rifle. You are about to fight the
fiercest battle in this game so far. Stand on the left side of the low wall
section and look over it to see when the first dropship has landed. Once it
has, run around the wall and position yourself left of the dropship. Four
Combine are about to debark and since they always hop out onto the very same
spot you can quite easily nail them with a short pulse-rifle blast. A nice
shoot-hit-ratio is when you have to reload after every two Combine. When the
transporter leaves again, turn around to see another one. Carefully move
along the wall and once the enemy vessel has landed, position yourself to its
right where you can kill four more Combine with ease. Then run straight to
the play ground and up to the rock near the house. Duck here to avoid the
dropships fire. Equip the crossbow and try to hit as many of the Combine with
it as you can, before switching to the pulse-rifle. Next, head for the light
house and run around it on the left side. Two Combine will head for you,
while the other two stay at the front side of the light house. Quickly kill
the latter ones as a gunship has appeared. Enter the light house and pick up
some health and rockets. Head for the top to fight the gunship. There's a
rocket crate a storey below and throughout the whole building you will find
medi kits, but still this battle is hard. It takes a while to take cover, you
usually need some time to find out where the gunship actually is whereas it
already opens fire and it stays far away for most of the time. Luckily
there's a rebel inside the tower who provides you with medi kits from time to
time, so just relax for a few minutes at the basement if you have already
nabbed all the items here.
Phew, finally the battle is over. Head for the settlement to loot it from
anything you need. The rebel in the light house opens up a secret path down
in the basement when you follow him. Take the path, break open the supply
carte and afterwards just ignore the newly landed Combine and the headcrab.
Run past them into the next area.
[Sand...lots of Sand]
Don't even bother trying to save the two poor rebels from the antlions. Once
they are dead, kill the antlions with the gravity gun and pull any good
objects to you with it. He said not to get onto the sand and you better
listen to him, because if you don't antlions will appear...every time you do.
Jump from rock to rock (place pallets between them via gravity gun if you
feel unsure), pulling in two supply crates from the left. Then hop over the
trash onto another rock and pull in the trash afterwards to build a path over
to the next rock. Continue your jumping until you reach a big valley.
Take the obvious path, which means to hop up to the big rock, go along, hop
down to the wooden bars and walk over them to a small puzzle: Jump onto the
seesaw, grab the crate at its end and place it at the other end. Then quickly
run to where the crate used to lie and jump onto the rocks. On the right you
can see a small house. Go there, picking up some good stuff and finding two
supply crates at the end of the pier. Duck on the pier and aim at the broken
boat to pull in two more crates, but make sure to duck and to aim well all
the time or else they disappear under the pier. Far behind the boat are more
crates, but the hassle to get them isn't worth it: You would have to place
crates and such in front of you, jump over them, pick them up again, place
them in front of you and so on. Instead either create a short path over the
sand back to the rock or simply jump there. If you're lucky you won't even
trigger an antlion here when briefly landing on the sand.
Now you have to get over to the hut behind the trench. Place the plank so
that it is half over the trench and half on the rock you are standing on. Put
any objects you can find on the rock side of the plank to stabilize it when
you run over it. Pick up all the stuff in the hut and if you want to you can
also place the barrels on the rocks behind the hut to get up to another shack.
I don't really recommend this, though, as there is nothing to be found except
for a supply crate and it is pretty hard to get up there. Head right for the
rock under another hut and place the pallet in the sand in front of you. Then
grab the door, drop down onto the pallet and place the door in front of you.
Walk onto it, grab the pallet and place it in front of you. Grab the do- oh,
you've already got the idea? Great.
Place the door on the sand between the rock and the wooden ramp to get up to
some goodies. Then walk to the back of the house on the lower rock. Turning
on the generator activates the antlion blocker. Ignore the crates on the rock
and on the beach to your right. Simply run to the antlion blocker and past it
up the rocks near some junk. Also ignore these crates here unless you are
desperately in need of health. Drop down to start the battle with some sort
of antlion queen. Run straight to the other end of the pit and circle around
a rock to protect yourself from the ram attacks of the queen. Use the shotgun
mainly on the normal antlions when they come too close and in between the
antlion attacks, also damage the queen. After a while a rebel will assist you
by manning a machine gun. Stay in the area you are at the moment so your
buddy can continuously deal damage to the antlions and the queen. At the
beginning of the pit you can find some supply crates, but the path to them is
too long and furthermore they are out of sight of your ally. Wait for the big
bug to be defeated before opening the crates.
A vortigaunt comes out of the rebel hideout, telling you to pick up the
pheropods inside the queen. Do so and follow him into the outpost where
nothing special awaits you, except for some crates and a nice dialogue
between two vortigaunts. At the end of the base you will get a training unit
in the use of pheropods. From now on no antlion will ever attack you and
furthermore you can even control them. Toss one of those bug baits into the
pit, then one at the Combine suit and then use the alternative fire mode to
make the bugs follow you. Afterwards approach the provisional gate and wait
for it to be opened.
[Pheromones]
Deactivate the first two antlion blockers (climb up the ladder to do so) and
approach a rock on the beach. As you do, some Combine will rush out of a
bunker. Throw a pheropod at them before hiding and waiting. Then loot the
bunker and move on to another one which you clear the same way. Enter the
bunker, deactivate the alarm and use the machine gun against four Combine
closing in from the beach. Some supply crates are behind the bunker. Turn off
the third antlion blocker. Note that you have four antlions at your heels.
Even if one of them dies, others will spawn so you always have four of them.
This makes them a great and cheap weapon you should always use unless you
want them to distract some other threat.
Throw pheropod in the direction of the next bunker. Once your bug friends
have run past you, head for the first rock on the beach ahead. Throw a
pheropod at the Combine in front of you while you stay hid behind the rock.
Then again bait the antlions towards the bunker and run along the beach up to
a big heap of rocks. Run up the grassy area onto the hill and past any
Combine. Try to kill them (with the pulse-rifle) but don't stop. Eventually
the pheropod's smell wears off so the antlions automatically come by to help
you out. Throw a bug bait at the bunker. Unfortunately your bugs won't reach
it as the machine guns inside will tear them apart, so go back to the
beginning of the grassy area. The enemies inside the bunker will concentrate
their fire on you, but they won't hit you, giving the antlions enough time to
clear the area. Nab all the goodies inside.
Now enter the big bunker in the rocks, sending in your new friends first.
They will both powerfully and intelligently wipe out any manhacks and Combine
they encounter here. At the far left corner is a room hidden behind a barrel
in which you will find lots of items. Leave the building and clear out
another small bunker with the pheropods. Either wait for the bugs to clear
the second one far up ahead or enter the first one and use its machine gun.
Walk out to the big open field and throw a pheropod in the direction of the
(so far) unmanned bunker. Infinite Combine rush in from the far right, trying
to reach the bunker. Your bugs should take care of them while you head for
the bunker. As soon as you enter it, the Combine stop spawning. Go along the
cliffs, jump over the pole and shoot down two zombies with the pistol. Push
the two wooden bars aside so the plank can be used as a ramp.
Throw up a pheropod against two Combine, climb up the ladder, hop over to the
supply crates, look closely for two more (guarded by a headcrab) and again
use the power of the pheromones against some Combine high up. Climb up the
rocks to enter the sewers.
[Sewers]
As you leave the canal, toss up a pheropod to the left. This will distract
the guard towers while you can safely climb up the ladder. Snipe at the two
Combine on the leftmost tower; then send in the bugs on the centre one.
Finally hit one of the guards on the third tower with the crossbow and let
the insects do the rest to clear the yard. Move on and throw a bugbait over
the fence to get rid of some more Combine.
For a few minutes the antlions will sadly lose their power as you will face
two gunships. Attack the first one as hard as you can and nab the missile
under the low roof on the left and another one on top of a supply crate at
the left wall. Then rush into the corner room, killing two Combine with the
pulse-rifle (the antlions would be too slow here) and refilling your health
and suit energy. Throw a pheropod at the guard hut up ahead and run around
the left corner into a container. Assist your bugs by firing at the Combine
above you.
Step out of the container, turn around 180 degree and throw a pheropod up
ahead. Then walk up the stairs, grab the two missiles and retreat back to the
container. I hope you've been aiming well so far, because if you did you can
destroy the first gunship now, which makes the whole situation a lot easier.
Run up the stairs again and open the missile crate. Against a single gunship
you can run around the area where the crate lies and hit the enemy as hard as
possible while constantly strafing around. Search for items after this really
fierce battle (don't overlook the medi kit inside the container near the
missile crate).
Nearby is a newly blown opening in the wall. Step in and shut down two gas
valves. It's time to leave your new insect friends.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.9 Chapter 9 - Nova Prospekt=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC9
[Help the Bugs]
Down the stairs, into the hole and past a headcrab (gravity gun) is all it
needs to see your antlions again. Admit it: You've missed them, right? Show
your love by tossing the sentry gun away as well as two more up the stairs.
Recover in a prison guard room where you also should switch the cameras to
see what to expect later on: Another antlion queen! Go up another set of
stairs, push two cannons aside and swim through the next room. Feed some
objects lying on the ground to the Barnacles to zip by.
Climb up the rubble. See and hear the glass breaking above you? As you open
the next door four super headcrabs fall down the ceiling. Stay in the hallway
and use the gravity gun while constantly moving around. Leave the hallway and
drop down one level and enter the hall. Try your best to hit the two sentry
guns above you with the barrels and radiators strewn around. If you can't do
it, go up the stairs, hide behind the columns and try again with new objects.
If you still keep missing you have to run up all the way (guarding yourself
by carrying a barrel) and use the gravity gun directly or try to push them
aside with a normal gun. Go through the hallway on the highest level.
[Force Fields]
Kill a headcrab to clear the path to the queen. Drop down and quickly crawl
through the holes in front of you to get to the lavatories where you can
circle around while fighting the big bug. Use the gravity gun on anything you
can find (except for the explosive barrels which should only be shot at from
a distance) to deal lots of damage, especially with the radiators. Once
you're done with it, your smaller antlion buddies are at your side again.
Open the door and send your bugs along the hallway to rid it of some Combine.
Against the two sentry guns, though, you have to act yourself. While they
concentrate on the bugs you can run along on the left side and crash the guns.
Quickly turn around and send your allies down the hallway on the right to
fight some additional Combine and manhacks. After the dust has settled,
approach the force field at the end of the passage. There are two Combine
hiding behind it, but they are dumb enough to come out eventually, being easy
enemies for your antlions. Now pull the trigger with the gravity gun and
activate the switch inside.
Leave the room. Around the corner is a newly opened gate. Look under the
stairs for a supply crate before moving up. Toss a pheropod at the entrance
ahead to both clear the trip bomb and to dispose of the Combine around the
corner. Activate the next switch to open yet another gate and search for
items on the upper level. Drop down and send your bugs through the gate to
take out a sentry gun. Afterwards haste through, pull away the vent girder
and crawl through. Hold the plank and the concrete block into the fan to
destroy it eventually. Move on, killing a lone Combine with the pulse-rifle
and pulling the plug with the gravity gun. Wait a few seconds to give the
antlions the time to at least kill any remaining Combine here. The sentry gun
on your left has to be dealt with by you, though.
[Big Hall]
Walk up the stairs and lob a pheropod down the hall which should be enough to
clear it. Advance further, sending the antlions up front so they attract the
fire of the machine gun station up ahead. Run behind them and around the
corner to get out of danger. Pick up the explosive barrel with the gravity
gun and throw it at the sentry guns down the corridor. If you miss you have
to enter the room, hide on the right and throw other things at them.
Go up the stairs and let your insectoid buddies do some more work. At the end
of the passage, briefly go up to see two Combine and retreat into one of the
cells. Simply let the antlions take care of these Combine as well as of some
more in front of the machine gun. It may seem tempting to use it against them,
but don't do it (at least not on hard) as you would be under fire from two
directions.
Don't go over the small bridge, but turn left and once again send the bugs in
first to clear the oncoming corridor of a bunch of Combine. Proceed, go over
the other small bridge and throw a pheropod into the opening on the left to
eliminate a sentry gun and two guards. Stock up in the guard room, activate
the switch and watch loads of Combine desperately trying to close in you. You
don't even have to do anything to make the bugs tear them apart.
Simply enjoy. ^^
Go through the gate nearby.
[Laundry Hall]
Freshen up your health in the room ahead. Phew, luckily the Combine have
already killed the queen that roamed around here. Toss a bug bait around the
corner and then again around the next corner. The antlions distract the
sentry guns, while you can attempt to throw a radiator at them or just run
into the corridor and hide in the room on its right side. Watch out for the
trip bomb in the dark when using the gravity gun through the far-most opening.
Next, throw a pheropod into the big hall. It might not seem to be good for
anything at first, but if you stay patient the bugs will eventually kill an
all too courageous Combine and after that they should be powerful enough to
clear the hall. Look at the right side of the hall for a dark passage with a
toxic zombie. Since there are lots of big objects scattered around, he isn't
any true danger. Search for some items and return to the hall.
Walk up, throw a pheropod into the short corridor on the right, run past it
and open a supply crate in a room nearby. Use a pheropod in the kitchen and
rush in, hiding behind any solid objects afterwards. Toss something against
the left sentry gun and then run to the other one. Stay away from the gas at
the hole, since it will easily be lit up. Send the antlions into the corridor
behind the hole and once the Combine are dead, run in there yourself and head
for the two right-most sentry guns. These can't hit you here, but afterwards
the other two can, so hurry when tossing them down. Go back to the open
entrance to the corridor in which the two guns stood to find a supply crate.
Walk up the first set of stairs. Before walking up the second one, throw a
pheropod up there. Restock and say good bye to the antlions. Who knows if
it's forever this time? Well, I know, but I won't tell you. Don't wanna spoil
anyone. Anyway, drop down through the broken window to find out where the
gunfire you can hear comes from: The right door is blown open and some
Combine come through it. Ignore them, though, as they are totally fixed on an
antlion queen. Wait for the queen to win and then first use the gravity gun
and afterwards the shotgun to end this battle, which actually is pretty easy
in comparison to the other queen encounters.
Push aside some junk in a corner, crawl outside, break open two supply crates
and kill a zombie. You've basically just left Nova Prospekt, but the prison
still doesn't want to let you part off. Go through the strange-looking
passage and place any object under the ledge on the right so you can hop into
the opening before the metal structure outside crushes you. Fortunately
you're in no hurry as it takes a while. Defeat a single headcrab and drop
down.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.10 Chapter 9a - Entanglement=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-C9A
[She's back]
Drop down and move along until you meet Alyx. Follow her into a lift. Take
out three Combine with the pulse-rifle after the ride, but also let Alyx do
some of the work. After she has hacked two consoles you are in for a rather
hectic battle: Follow Alyx while eliminating various Combine with the pulse-
rifle and be quick about it as Ms. Vance is about to take lots of damage
otherwise. Once up the stairs, go around the left corner to kill a lone
Combine in Alyx' back. When the area is secure, enter a dark room for a
supply crate. Then follow her to an interesting story scene. Seems like you
didn't really leave Nova Prospekt, but you have just entered its interesting
parts.
Alyx opens the next door, but retreats to assist you from a distance. Open
the left door in the dark passage to access two supply crates guarded by two
super headcrabs. Afterwards enter the guard room. Find a hidden vent by
pushing the cupboards away. Crawl through, killing three headcrabs on the way.
At the end, toss the girder outside and hop down to give any surviving
headcrabs the rest with the gravity gun.
Wait for Alyx to open the left gate. Advance to the guard room and look at
the monitor. It shows four Combine approaching the other entrance to this
room. Wait for the correct moment to lob some grenades through the broken
window towards the gate. Then switch to the pulse-rifle and do the rest. Look
into the next hallway to see two more Combine. Give 'em a grenade. Now just
one more grenade to the sentry guns inside the hallway and you're done for
this battle. Go back to the guard room for a grenade crate.
Return to the sentry gun hallway, enter the left corridor and throw a grenade
around the corner. Equip the pulse-rifle to kill any Combine that has
survived there and in the upcoming room. Throw a grenade through the force
field into the room with the plug to advance. Lay down a sentry gun with the
gravity gun and two more of them with a wide grenade toss down a corridor.
[Defence]
Dispose of two Combine with the pulse-rifle. After that you have to act
relatively quickly. Open the right cupboard (there's a button right at it)
and pick up one of those sentry guns, Alyx has just recalibrated. Place it
down one of the sets of stairs. Put the other one at the end of the other
stairs. Behind the force field Combine soldiers are about to rush in for a
few minutes, as well as three manhacks near the end. Stay on the upper level,
assist either sentry gun a bit with the pulse-rifle and when one side is
clear for the moment, run over to the other side. If you hear a sentry gun
siren and a heavy shooting where the gun stood, it has been thrown down.
Quickly go to it and put it back up by simply pressing E, walking a few steps
forward and backward and dropping it again. Then go back up and assist the
other gun. In between you can also use the health panel at the wall. Once the
manhacks appear, concentrate on them and crash them at any wall via the
gravity gun.
Alyx appears once again, revealing a shocking bit of story. Carry one of the
sentry guns and take a left behind where the force field was. Clear the path
from all the junk, go down the stairs and place the gun right in the doorway
to easily kill three headcrabs. Break open a supply crate pick up the sentry
gun again and proceed to a flooded and electrified room. Shoot the gun over
to the platform up ahead (with the gravity gun) and follow it over the pipes.
Kill two headcrabs, shoot the cannon over to the exit out of this room (at
the fence) and pull in two crates to build a small bridge over to the exit.
Jump onto the first one, drop the second one in front of it, pick up the
first one, drop it ahead of you and so on until you are back on solid ground.
Turn left to see some ammo you can reel in with the gravity gun.
Move on with the sentry gun. First enter the left room to recover; then walk
up to the Combine, which triggers some zombies to stand up and attack you.
Simply retreat to the flooded room and place the sentry gun. Up the stairs
(at the very top is a supply crate), past the crates and the cupboard which
block an entrance and up some more stairs (while still carrying the sentry
gun along) to face two Combine. Place the cannon at the opening on the left
or if you don't carry it along: Use the pulse-rifle. Pick up some ammo in the
guard room and jump down.
I consider this to be one of the most difficult situations in the whole game
if not even the most difficult one: You have to defend yourself against
hordes of Combine and manhacks, spawning just about everywhere. Enter a small
room with three sentry guns behind a force field. Place two of them at the
left entrance of this room and the other one at the other entrance. If you
have kept another one all the way as I told you, use it to reinforce the
single cannon. Have the pulse-rifle in your hands and watch out for anything
around you. If a cannon is pushed aside, put it back up. If a Combine
attempts to attack a cannon in close-quarter, kill him. If a Combine appears
in front of the cannons, trying to shoot at you, hide in the cupboard. When a
manhack appears, switch to the gravity gun and destroy it. The main threat
are the grenades. Whenever one rolls into your little fort, you better run
out and head back after the explosion, putting the sentry guns back in place.
Switching to the gravity gun to toss them away is too risky in my opinion. In
between the attacks you should refill at the two wall panels.
===Alternative Way===
Vidmo told me of a great way of beating this passage, which affords way less
shooting skills, overview of the situation and micro management, but just
some quick hopping. I wasn't aware that the attack commences once you have
placed all three sentry guns instead of after a set amount of time. So before
touching any of them you should grab six crates to build a set of stairs in
front of one of the balconies you might have jumped down from. The first step
consists of just one crate, the second one of two and the last one of three.
Then pick up two of the sentry guns with the gravity gun and toss them up on
the balcony. Jump up to position them at the left end of the hallway in the
dead end, pointing them to the right side. Get back down and prepare to be
quick. Grab the final sentry gun, hurl it up, swiftly follow it and position
it as well, before hiding behind the pillar on the left. Combine an Manhacks
are going to come for you, so you might want to carefully assist your sentry
guns by shooting some Combine and especially by having your gravity gun ready
whenever you hear a Manhack closing in.
===End of the Alternative Way===
===Alternative Way - Even Better===
MeestahChanggg & Darkpark saw Vidmo's strategy and they improved on it even
further: Do not place the crates below the above mentioned balcony, but
rather in front of the closed gate, with a health and a suit panel behind it.
Now, again, bring up two sentry guns to a short, empty hallway either by
hurling them via gravity gun or by jumping up and pulling them up with said
weapon. After that, pick up the remaining sentry gun, drop it immediately and
make your way up to the other two guns. Just hide in the back of the hallway,
letting your two guns do all the work. If a manhack comes near, use the
gravity gun, and put the sentry guns back up if a grenade throws them down
(which happens pretty rarely). You should be able to defeat the hostile
armada with nearly no hassle and no health loss.
===End of the Alternative Way===
Look around for items (there is an SMG ammo crate, but the pulse-rifle is way
better of a choice in this fierce battle and you should find more than enough
ammo for it after the battle as well) and follow Alyx down the stairs.
[Dr. Mossmann]
The lights are turned off, but don't worry: The Combine light up the place
soon after. Still have the pulse-rifle equipped and head for the single
Combine around the right corner. Move along the right side of the fence and
hide between the crates as you somewhat surprise the enemies on the other
side of the fence. If you run out of pulse ammo, switch to the SMG. Restock
at a health panel and follow the only available path to another story
relevant scene. After entering the Combine teleporter hall, turn left and use
the two wall panels to fill up your health and suit energy.
Listen to the dialogue and watch the whole scenery until Alyx tells you to
cover here. Place two of the sentry turrets at the glass openings and the
last one in front of the force field next to the Combine teleporter. Stay on
the centre platform while lots of Combine try to rush in from three different
places. The turrets will settle the situation nearly all on their own; just
put them back into place if they get struck down by a grenade. If you get
hurt, heal yourself at the wall panels. After a while Alyx finally gets the
teleporter back up, allowing you to escape.
[Dr. Kleiner]
Enter Dr. Kleiner's lab and search for a suit energy panel, an energy item
and a supply crate while your allies have a conversation. At the end, drop
down into the hole near D0g.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.11 Chapter 10 - Anticitizen One=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C10
[D0g]
Walk out, approach the car wreck and watch D0g going rampage on the Combine.
Afterwards D0g will open up a path for you. Go through, climb over the fence
and walk over the rubble on the left inside the house.
[The Uprising]
Ah, you're back to the play ground - but - they have nearly completely
destroyed it. Not it's personal! Proceed to the main station, destroying two
sentry drones and meeting four rebels on the way. The uprising really has
begun, so take them with you as your squad. Pressing C sends them to where
you currently aim at; pressing C twice makes them follow you again. Another
rebel drops down some supply crates. Pick up their contents and look out for
two Combine opening a gate to your right.
[Hoppers]
Usually you would have to clear the hole, jump down and try your best to
avoid the blast of the hopper mines, but there is an easy way to get through
here safely: Stand on the corrugated iron, look straight down and fire the
gravity gun at it. This catapults you high up, allowing you to steer over the
fence to the rebel in midair. Enter the left house for some goodies. Clearing
the rest of the area is rather useless. You would have to deal with some
headcrabs and a lot of hoppers, with only sometimes one of your squad members
coming along later on as a reward. Since you meet three new squad members on
this side of the fence anyway, I'd say you just move on.
The strider on your right luckily isn't interested in you and your squad, but
the lone Combine on the guard tower on the left is. Use either the crossbow
or the pulse-rifle. Then equip the gravity gun and hunt down those headcrabs.
A bunch of hoppers drops down from above, so you better know how to deal with
them: If the light on top of them is green, they mean no harm, but if it is
red, they will hop up (now you know why they're called hoppers) when you get
too close and blow up upon landing. Unfortunately you cannot do anything
about them until they are in midair. Once they are, hurl them away with the
gravity gun, hence you better watch out to approach them in such a way that
they can fly over a rather long distance and not straight into a wall in
front of you. If there is no big space behind them, approach them and retreat
when they hop up.
Look on the truck for health, turn on the flashlight and clear the right path
of two hoppers. Use the pulse-rifle against a Combine appearing in the window
up ahead and another one running in from the left. Search for a medi kit in
the hut on the right which triggers another Combine to appear in the window
above the other shack. Pull in an explosive barrel and hurl it at him. Move
on, firing the crossbow on a Combine down the alley. Then look left to the
lambda symbol. Long time no see. At first I though you would have to climb up
the shack and onto the balcony, but actually it is far simpler: Approach the
left end of the shack to open it.
Watch out for the hopper near the explosive barrel. It's best just to ignore
it and to stay out of its reach. Pick up the barrel with the gravity gun and
throw it at the three Combine around the corner. If any survives, fire off
some pulse-ammo. If the one behind the barricade still lives, blow up the
barrels that stand near him. Pick up the medi kit inside the shack.
[House Battles]
Ignore the stairs (there's only some ammo and two zombies upstairs) and leave
the building. Go right, fill up your squad with new rebels and enter the
house nearby. Down in the basement are some supply crates, only guarded by a
single headcrab. Walk up the stairs to the second storey and position
yourself at the second glass door on the left. Pull out the shotgun, aim for
the Combine behind the door, open it and quickly kill this enemy as well as
another one on the left. Now go back and walk around a different corner to
find some more Combine. Once the storey is clear, look around for supply
crates. Snipe at a Combine standing outside, drop down the hole in the floor
and hurl two sentry guns away with the gravity gun, before using the health
panel.
Keep the gravity gun equipped, haste along the street to the right, break
open the window on the right with the gravity gun to find a supply crate and
when you get close to the Combine barricade, simply ignore it. It will be
closed and guarded by infinite enemies, so instead of battling them, enter
the building on the left where you kill two Combine with the pulse-rifle (one
of them is on a higher level). Watch out for two hoppers, kill another
Combine on the stairs and smash some supply crates on the highest storey.
Drop down twice.
You're at the back side of the barricade and somehow the Combine have stopped
spawning. Hmmm. Shoot the few enemies around and walk up to the other
building. Enter the right-most room, strike a Combine with a close-up shotgun
burst and while you open the crate your squad should deal with the other
enemy in the next room. Enjoy the suit energy panel. Enter the cellar, open
three crates and wield the shotgun against quite a few Combine in the hallway.
Walk down the stairs, switch to the SMG (you probably don't have that much
shotgun ammo left by now) and again kill lots of Combine in a hallway and in
some adjacent rooms. Push the cupboards forward with the gravity gun for some
easy kills and use the gravity gun against the manhacks as soon as they are
in range.
Down the stairs (refill at the health panel) you have to say good bye to your
squad. Pretty surprising actually; they just suddenly aren't with you anymore.
Deactivate a sentry turret on the left and then two more on the right. Look
down at the ledge to see a zombie crawling around. Kill him with the crowbar
before walking up the stairs to some supply crates. Pull them in with the
gravity gun, move the gun over the fence and see the goodies come in. Get
back down and go along the hallway.
[Tunnels]
Meet up with a new squad. Run straight down the corridor, only hurling away a
manhack if it gets too close. Since new manhacks will appear ever after, it
is useless to destroy them. Climb up the rocks at the end of the tunnel, up
onto the truck and on the fence. Drop down, shoot the lock and go on.
Here now you should wait inside the small room and wait for manhacks to come
in so you can smash them against a wall. Open the supply crates; then kill
the two Combine right behind the door with the pulse-rifle and head to a
lambda symbol down the tunnel on the right. Return to the door and try to
position yourself in such a way that you can see the Combine at the right
machine gun on the far end of the tunnel, but he doesn't shoot at you. Aim
the crossbow between the pillars and take him down. Approach the car in front
of the other machine gun to get close enough for another crossbow hit. Open
three supply crates. Approach the blocked opening to make a rebel plant some
charges at the stuff that blocks the path. Quickly return to the left machine
gun and man it. A few Combine and infinite manhacks will rush in on you. As
soon as you can, hit the Combine (just look at those explosive barrels;
tempting, right? So hit them!) with the machine gun. Against the manhacks the
gravity gun is the better choice as it allows you to dodge attacks.
After a while the opening is...well - open...so go through, try to open the
left door and then crawl through another even smaller opening up ahead. I
hate this passage...hop onto the car (it sinks!), over the crates and onto
the truck. It's time to build a bridge with two objects again. So pick up one
of the cable wire things, place it in the radioactive water, pick up the
other one, step onto the first one, drop the second one, walk onto it, turn
around, pick up the first one and repeat. Don't try to take the seemingly
easy way over the solid platform in the centre, as this would trigger lots f
zombies to stand up. Instead, stay on the water all the time, also just
pulling in the medi kit later on with the gravity gun. This way you will only
have to fight two zombies (shotgun) up to the end of the passage. Ignore the
two other zombies there, turn left, jump over to the pipes at the wall and
walk up. Open any of the vents (it really doesn't matter which one you pick),
drop down, smash some crates, open the door for your ally and walk up the
stairs.
[Bridges]
Meet another squad member and let him aid you against some super headcrabs
while you use the gravity gun and keep moving. Pick up the suit energy on the
right side of the car and open a supply crate. Enter the house, kill a single
headcrab with the gravity gun and open the crates after dropping down at the
Combine barricade thing. Go outside, wait for one of your allies to say the
correct password (what a great password, actually... ^^) and enter the
building on the right.
Kill a Combine on the stairs with the shotgun, look for two supply crates in
the dark room nearby, rid the stairs of two more Combine with the pulse-rifle
and once you're at the top, look down into the small hole and eliminate
another soldier with the pulse-rifle. Drop down, head for the room straight
ahead, surprise a Combine with the shotgun and approach the window to get the
bridge lowered (enter the other room in this building for magnum ammo). Cross
it, search for some items and walk up the stairs to find lots of super
headcrabs. Use the shotgun as you haven't got much space to dodge attacks.
Around the right corner is a medkit, guarded by a super zombie. Drop down,
hit the burning super zombie on the lower storey before he gets to jump up to
you, drop down, aim for a normal zombie below, drop down one last time and
hit two super headcrabs with the gravity gun. Feast on the numerous supply
crates, prior to leaving the building on the left.
Take out the grenade throwing Combine on the roof to your right with the
crossbow. Then kill another Combine up ahead with the pulse-rifle and two
more in the building on the left. Before entering it, though, you have to
clear the path of two hoppers. Equip the gravity gun as you are about to face
lots of pesky super headcrabs. Climb up and meet your new squad members.
Stock up and go outside, sniping at a Combine on the left and three on the
right. Lower the bridge with the lever, run across it and defeat two Combine
in close quarter with the pulse-rifle. Just ignore the other enemies on the
roofs. As you enter the building another Combine hops down from above. Give
him a taste of your pulse-rifle as well as two more below. Drop down, smash
the supply crates and position yourself near the windows; several Combine
will rush in from up ahead, so be quick and precise with the pulse-rifle.
Move along the right corridor, look out for an explosion at the ceiling and
kill some more Combine on the upper level. Further move to see some more
enemies on the left. Go up the stairs and hit a Barnacle above it as well as
some more around the corner.
A super zombie drops down, but the shotgun should take him out quickly. Jump
down, dispose of another super zombie and a Combine with the SMG and watch a
nice battle down on the lower storey. If a super zombie comes up to you, kill
him, of course, but otherwise wait for the battle to end and easily eliminate
the few survivors. Go around the corner to where the yellow lambda symbol is.
Like a few minutes ago you have to pull in some supply crates with the
gravity gun and move them over the gate. Afterwards go around the corner into
another hallway.
[Guarding Alyx]
Duck to get the sentry tower into the reach of your gravity gun. Then drop
down, kill a headcrab and restock at the wall panels while Alyx makes for a
great return. Enter the living room to trigger a lot of Combine to come by.
Use the pulse-rifle against them and hide behind the furniture every few
seconds. Proceed to another suit energy panel, go down the stairs and take
out another Combine with the pulse-rifle. Alyx assumes there's some sort of
command station in the next room. While she will storm through the right door,
you are assigned the left one. Open it and strike hard at three Combine with
the pulse-rifle.
Walk outside onto the square. Alyx heads for the control station at the
liquid shield thing, trying to expose a crucial energy core. In the meantime
you have to defend her. This might seem hard and it can be, but it doesn't
have to. Ignore the single guards on the watch tower and on the balcony; your
squad will deal with them. You just position yourself close to Alyx. Destroy
the manhacks with the gravity gun and except for that, mainly stay behind the
shield and use the panels if you need to. Infinite Combine rush in from the
sides. Your allies stay close to you and if you are where I tell you to be,
they will be pretty safe (especially since they duck behind the low walls)
and they should keep most Combine away. Whenever an enemy still manages to
get close to Alyx or even just close to the fountain, get out and quickly
kill him with the pulse-rifle. Otherwise watch the Combine and if you see
that a few of them stand close together, step out and toss a grenade at them.
Even if it misses them, it still slows them down. Absolutely do not try to
run to the enemies here. It is dangerous and useless at the same time as new
ones spawn nearly immediately. The tactic I suggest you keeps the Combine
alive for a long time, but this isn't a bad thing, as they don't do any harm
and as none will spawn as long as the older ones still live. After a pretty
long while, the energy core will finally be visible, yet it still is
protected by a final layer. Wait for Alyx to tell you that it is time to use
the gravity gun on the core. Do so, kill two elite Combine (yup; a new kind
of enemy) and retreat with Ms. Vance through the newly opened gate. Watch her
climb up if you want to or just enter the canal instantly, smash a supply
crate and go down the stairs.
[Separated again]
Use the gravity gun to pull up the wooden bar that blocks the door. Open it
and while you're at it, stick with the gravity gun. Destroy two manhacks with
it. Then pull away one of the barrels on the right, climb up onto the pipes,
destroy two more manhacks, crawl through the vent and, guess what, destroy a
manhack. Don't drop down just yet. Instead pull down some of the cardboard
boxes up ahead to reveal a supply crate which you also pull down. Once you
are down, too, several manhacks come from the left. Destroy them to get
access to some health and suit energy behind them.
Enter the staircase and toss a grenade up and left to hopefully dispose of
three Combine. If any survive, use the magnum. Drop down from storey to
storey (ignore the zombies or use the pistol against it) until you see two
more Combine in front of you. Like so many times before, the pulse-rifle
works best. Then turn around and search for a ladder at a pipe. Get to the
upper end of the ladder and climb down to find two supply crates. Climb back
up, enter the room to the right of the Combine corpses and take care of a
toxic headcrab with the gravity gun. Also use it to pull up another wooden
bar which blocks a door.
Open the door and hit a Combine around the corner. Wait for a normal headcrab
and a toxic one to come by. Then go around the corner, kill another headcrab,
then a Combine at the end of the passage, a Barnacle on the right and a toxic
headcrab up the stairs. The suit energy, grenades and health should be worth
the additional shooting (note that you have to use the gravity gun in order
to get the items).
Go back and into the trench. There has been a severe battle between Combine
and zombies here, so there shouldn't be a lot of opposition here anymore.
Follow the trench to the right for a medikit. Afterwards search around for
lots of various headcrabs and even a fat zombie. The reward is some supply
crates at the end of a hallway. Also look out for a yellow lambda symbol
where the fat zombie was; pull in some items in a small hole in the wall.
Climb up the ladder, defeat another headcrab and climb over the rubble into a
big hall. Move up (there is some health on the right behind two barrels),
haste over the bridge, use the health and energy panels and snipe at two
Combine up ahead above you. Call the platform via the lever and snipe at two
more Combine. Once the platform has arrived, push the lever again and quickly
board the platform. Turn around to not be surprised by a Combine during your
ride. Kill another one on the other side and debark. Shoot a Combine above
with the pulse-rifle and/or the SMG, climb up the ladder, snipe at two elite
Combine and proceed on the right rail of the platform lift. Shoot another
elite Combine above with the pulse-rifle, climb up the ladder at the green
tower (this sure took me a while to find...) to the highest level and turn
right to quickly kill two white Combine. Hide behind the barrels on the left,
pull in an explosive barrel and hurl it down at the two enemies pretty much
right in front of you. Climb down the ladder one level, look for good stuff
(especially behind the red container) and then drop down to the hopper.
Ignore it and go through the door where another hopper awaits you. Approach
it and briefly retreat once it jumps up.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.12 Chapter 11 - "Follow Freeman!"-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C11
[Snipers]
Open some supply crates and go outside. Haste along the left wall, hiding
from the sniper up ahead whenever possible. Then, once you are next to a
truck and a trash bin, run behind another truck, then behind a car and
finally rush towards the sniper. Beneath the window you are safe, so take
your time and throw up a grenade. Open the supply crates. Carefully go around
the corner where another sniper controls the street. Haste across the street
into the room with the big windows. Break open a supply crate, leave the room
and run on to the right, while strafing and jumping to hopefully avoid some
of the sniper attacks.
Enter the left building; kill two headcrabs with the gravity gun and a super
zombie in the dark area with the shotgun. Enter the bathroom for some medi
kits. Head down the ramp and go over to the hurt rebel. Defend him against
some zombies with the shotgun. Further down the water corridor are two super
zombies. Either use either use the pulse-rifle or the shotgun. It depends on
which ammo you can afford to use at the moment.
Go up the stairs to some zombies you can luckily ignore completely: A sniper
on the left takes care of them. Once he's done with them, lob a grenade into
the sniper's window. In case you keep missing, there is a grenade crate
nearby. Move on to meet Barney, asking you to eliminate two snipers. They
aren't visible at the moment, so walk up onto the roof to trigger them. One
is at the end of the roof (go down one storey to get him) and your second
victim is on the left, attackable from the roof (of course both of them are
behind windows again).
Approach Barney, help him against two toxic headcrabs and follow him down a
pile of rubble to a Combine console he manages to hack to open the path to a
supply crate and two poisonous headcrabs (gravity gun).
[Big Bertha]
Go outside to a small backyard and pull in an explosive barrel from the right.
Hurl it up at two Combine and a Sentry Turret. Smash the supply crate and
move on to see the true power of the Combine weapon you are aiming to destroy.
Go down the stairs, destroy the hopper, use the gravity gun against the
Sentry Turret on your left and destroy yet another hopper.
Outside you will have to tackle the super weapon: A devastating beam comes
down at a certain spot every few seconds. This spot is always right at the
point you are going to be at when the beam strikes. Since you can see where
it will strike next, you can try to dodge it. When you see it in front of you,
stop and go back a few feet, as the weapons also has a blast radius. Note
that you are safe under a roof or any under solid object. Head for the
container near the pit for some health and some cover. Then get back out,
turn left and run over the rubble. Somehow you seem to be more safe here than
on the street. Head for the door, enter the building and kill two Combine
with the pulse-rifle.
After patching yourself up at the health panel, open the next door, wait for
the beam to strike again and run outside, heading for the small bunker ahead,
which is only lightly guarded. Ignore any other enemies on the right and just
proceed ahead to the next building. Two Combine will leave it when you
approach it and another one waits inside. Pick up some more stuff and leave
on the right. Head for the museum or whatever it is to be safe from the super
weapon, but on the other hand you will have to face four normal Combine and
an elite Combine. You might want to consider using not only the pulse-rifle
but also its secondary fire. Walk past the main entrance, pull a plug behind
the force field and enter the museum.
[A Visit to the Museum]
Open the left door. See those blue laser lines? These activate sunken Sentry
Guns which observe a certain area after having been activated. This one,
luckily, is rather harmless. Walk into the laser, step back and you should be
fine. Roll a grenade at the Gun while it is up to destroy it. In a small room
behind you are infinite grenades and two supply crates.
The main hall. Hurl a grenade at the Combine appearing behind the force field
at the exit sign and finish them off with the pulse-rifle. Then break the
blue lasers nearby and destroy the two Sentry Guns. The first one can be
struck without entering its area of sight, but for the other one you have to
swiftly go around the corner, throw the grenade and retreat. Eliminate two
Combine in the dark.
Go up the stairs, pass by on the lasers and rescue some reinforcements. Then
equip a grenade, break the lasers, quickly step around the left corner and
toss a grenade into both Guns without them being able to even see you.
Afterwards enter the room behind the Guns to find two wall panels and the
first shield generator. Use the gravity gun as you did when Alyx lowered the
shields on the square. Go back to face lots of Combine and an elite Combine
coming up the stairs you already came up from. I highly suggest a well aimed
secondary fire of the pulse-rifle.
Now search for a bridge near the stairs (not the one opposite of it), walk
over it, take a right and enter a room you are about to get trapped in. Stay
close to the various openings in the walls (patrol along all of them) to get
a shot at some Combine behind them. After a while one of the doors is about
to be opened. Hit the two hoppers with the gravity gun so they land near that
door. Once the door is open, a few more Combine enter the room, getting a
taste of their own hopper medicine. Finish them off with the pulse-rifle.
Also watch out for the other door which will also be opened (not as obviously,
though) by two soldiers. Move on, go through the lasers and do not destroy
the guns. Instead bunny-hop towards them and wait in between them for them to
cease fire. Then deactivate the generator, which also takes care of the Guns
and restock at the health panel.
Go over to the other wing of the building (either via the bridges or via the
main staircase), tell your squad to stay back and break another blue laser.
Toss a grenade at the only Sentry Gun and hide behind the table until the
grenade explodes. The Gun guarded some grenades and health.
Now again tell your squad to halt and enter a nearby room with lots of red
lasers and a hopper at the entrance. Dispose of the hopper, jump onto the
structure right in front of you, walk left past the first few lasers and hop
onto the block up ahead. Turn right to jump over the next lasers. Get onto
the round thing with the pipes sticking out, walk around it and jump onto the
pipe at the wall. Your way leads up the shelf, onto the right shelf and then
onto the big solid console nearby. The rest should be self-explaining over
the pipes to the switch which turns off the whole security including the
hoppers.
Destroy the last generator which triggers loads of Combine and elite Combine
to spawn on the ground floor at the main hall. Throw down a few grenades and
kill the survivors with the pulse-rifle. Follow Barney down through the exit
passage, destroy three hoppers, use the wall panels and proceed to a Combine
console, Barney is about to hack. Enter the newly opened gate, take out a
Sentry Turret (gravity gun) and two Combine (pulse-rifle) to clear the way up
to the roof.
[On the Rooftop]
Simply run along the roofs, killing some Combine with the pulse-rifle (and
taking cover, while your men keep fighting) until you reach a health panel
and a suit energy panel. As you use these, a gunship takes off. Fire off your
first three missiles from where you are at the moment and then head back to
the beginning of the roof area. There is a missile crate and luckily the
gunship stays rather close here so you can take it down pretty easily.
Stay near this crate for a while until you see a dropship coming from the
right. Hit the strider down below to not get bored as you wait. The dropship
drops three Combine and an elite Combine which will open the gate at the
panels, rushing towards you. Staying close to the gate is pretty much
suicidal on the hard difficulty setting, even if you use the hoppers, but
staying near the missile crate allows for a good overview of the situation
and the enemy position and it allows for the use of the missile launcher.
Just wait for the enemies to come into reach and kill them.
Move on to near the gate and snipe at an enemy in a guard tower. Move on
until you stand behind a container. Pull in the three supply crates, smash
them, bunny-hop to the switch near them, activate it and hop back. This
lowers the bridge over to a heavily guarded building where infinite enemies
keep coming. Fortunately you also have just triggered four rebels to join you.
Stay behind the container, waiting for the first three enemies to run over
the bridge. After having killed them, get onto the bridge yourself and use
the secondary fire of the pulse-rifle to kill three more enemies across the
bridge. Now let your squad lead the way and use the secondary fire again upon
reaching the other end. There shouldn't be much resistance left and as the
Combine stop respawning as soon as you successfully cross the bridge, you can
simply clear the rooms in close-quarter battles with the pulse-rifle. Drop
down the stairs.
[War of the Worlds]
Welcome to the spectacular battle against the striders. Run to the front
porch of the museum where some rebels are already fighting against the
striders. Fire off your first three missiles and run on into the pit up ahead.
Walk through the canal, wait for the second strider to cease firing and
quickly run out of the canal and up the rubble. Then take a left into the
building where you can nab some missiles. Fire them off, leave the building
through where entered it and head for the bunker in the centre of the plaza.
Again, pick up some missiles and use them to finish the job.
Proceed to the big pile of rubble, search for a passage through it and
restock at the missile crate. Take down another strider up ahead. Afterwards
step back and witness the striders' true power: A new strider coming from the
right fires its laser beam at the corner of the building, blowing a hole into
it. First destroy the strider then search for a health panel inside. Get back
and use the missile launcher against some Combine at a barricade down the
street. Go there, walk down the stairs and smash some crates.
[Big House]
Briefly step out onto the street to attract a Combine on your right. Retreat
and kill him when he's gotten close to you. Then head down the street on the
right, escaping into a basement on the left. Pick up the explosive barrel
with the gravity gun to hurl it at three Combine coming through the doorway
in front of you. Throughout this area new sentry drones appear, but as they
can only pester you, first defeat any real enemies or take cover before
dealing with them. Walk up the stairs while wielding the shotgun. Lure the
two Combine down into the staircase to make the shotgun more effective. Enter
the bathroom on the left for two supply crates; then pass up on the ramp to
find three more crates. Walk up the ramp, shoot the crossbow at a Combine on
the left and run over to the staircase to find some health. Leave the
staircase and walk up the concrete bar in the centre of what used to be a
room. Hide behind the debris as long as you need to safely run out and over
to the next storey of the staircase. There's a missile crate here, but you
absolutely don't have to defeat the strider outside. Only do it if you feel
like. Anyway, the next step is to hop into the passage next to the crate,
smash three supply crates and drop down.
[Big Battlefield]
Hop down into the basement, smash a crate on the left and assist your allies
in a fight against four Combine with the pulse-rifle. Smash another crate,
run up and ignore both the strider and the elite Combine. Drop into the hole
on the left and quickly head for the room up ahead where you will find cover
and two supply crates. Go around the corner, hide on the right and wait for
the second strider to pass by. Drop into the hole the strider came out of and
prepare of the three elite Combine to catch up with you. Use the pulse-rifle
against them. Break open a supply crate in the dark.
Move on until the ground below you is blown apart. Look up and use the
secondary fire of the pulse-rifle against the right-most Combine. This should
also take care of another Combine, only leaving one behind. Kill him, climb
up, smash a crate and get outside. Take cover behind the various walls,
eliminate some Combine above and run away from any grenades, but don't waste
too much time here. Don't try to kill ever enemy; instead go around the
corner, pick up some items, lean against the wall to hide from the strider
and haste into the closed room nearby. Shoot a Combine with the shotgun and
break open a few supply crates.
Go up, take down a Combine with the shotgun and definitely ignore the goodies
nearby. If you get close to them, the strider in the background will fire off
its big beam at you. Instead, drop down and keep fighting for a while until
the strider opens a new path in front of you. Drop down, hide in the small
room on the left where some crates wait to be cracked open and then haste out
and up on the left. Kill a few enemies without stopping. Afterwards enter the
building, look for some goodies on the left and walk up the stairs to the
roof. Defeat another Combine and equip the missile launcher to battle the two
striders. But before that, retreat into the staircase until the gunship flies
off. Then ignore the Combine on the other roofs, restock at the missile crate,
hide in between your attacks and whenever all of your squad members are dead,
retreat into the staircase until you have some rebels at your side again, as
these draw most of the striders' attention on them. Also don't refrain from
patching yourself up at the health panels on the ground level whenever you
need to.
After taking down the two striders, clear the roofs from the Combine, using
the missile launcher. Hey, it's fun and you there's a missile crate nearby.
Then balance over the girders at the side of the roof where the stairs end.
Drop down behind the wall, kill a Combine, pick up some suit energy in a dead
end on the left and move on, triggering D0g to appear. While he doesn't
defeat the whole opposition, he at least draws the attention to him, giving
you the chance to clear the area. Go to the barricade and drop down into the
hole, D0g reveals for you.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.13 Chapter 12 - Our Benefactors=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C12
[Outside the Citadel]
Carefully climb down the cliff on the left, kill a headcrab in the dark (it
guards a medkit) and drop down onto the upper pipe. Wait for the machinery in
front of you to come up, hop onto it and then quickly to the right. Turn left,
move on, drop down a bit, enter the big hall on the right, follow the rail
beneath the ceiling and drop down again, this time to the left. Drop down to
a small ledge in the hall where the human capsules come through a laser beam.
Carefully advance to enter one of those capsules yourself. Press E at the
second one you come across, as the first one would get you fried in the laser.
[A Bumpy Ride]
Yeah, Monster's Inc...ok, sorry for that. ^^ Look around on your journey to
see Combine not wearing suits and masks and also to see some other
interesting stuff. You end up in a rather small room, with the hatch opening,
making you fall out. Whatever you do, don't commit the same mistake I did
once: You can turn around quickly and press E again to stay inside the
capsule forever. There is no way out there again, besides loading the last
autosave (or some other save file, of course).
[A New Weapon]
Sometimes a bug instantly kills you after this area has been loaded
completely. If this happens, you have to load a save file from the last area
and hope for the bug to not appear again.
Anyway, you are taken away all your weapons (hey, didn't this already happen
in HL1?), but the machine somehow can't handle the gravity gun, which is
turned into a super gravity gun in the process. Wait for four Combine to
storm the room. This is the perfect chance to try out the new gun. How? There
are no loose objects around here? Well, simply aim at the enemies directly
and either pull them in or hurl them away. Furthermore the new gravity gun is
able to heave heavy objects like the computers found all around the Citadel.
Restock at the wall panel (from now on those panels both give health and suit
energy; the latter one even up to 200). Rip out a monitor, move on and hurl
it at the Combine in front of you. Quickly proceed as new Combine keep
spawning. Pull them in briefly and drop them to be able to pull in another
one. If you and the enemies build a straight line, then pull in the first
enemy and toss him at his companions. Hop over the railing and hurl the two
Combine into the light pole to see its devastating effect on any living
being...which includes you as well, so watch out not to get too close to it.
Go along the right, kill a lone Combine and ride up the lift. Pull in the
left-most energy ball both to turn off the force field and to have a powerful
weapon at your disposal: Toss the ball at the elite Combine and then pull in
another energy ball to also dispose of the normal Combine. Patch yourself up
at the wall panel.
Shut down another force-field, kill numerous Combine and keep up the pressure
on them as they keep spawning. Swiftly move on to stop the spawning. Use
another wall panel and leave this area.
[A sloooooow Lift]
Easily dispose of two Combine. Then head for the open hall, press the switch
and run to the wall panel. Defend yourself against hordes of scanners,
manhacks, Combine and elite Combine coming from various directions. Ignore
the computer and the energy balls. All it takes here is a straight forward
attack against the enemies and some healing whenever possible.
After a while the lift in the centre of the hall will reach your level, so
grab a computer panel via gravity gun (thanks to Taner Tuemkaya for the hint)
and step onto the lift to be taken up automatically. This is one of the most
difficult passage of the game and it can get really tedious on hard, but
unfortunately there isn't a lot to tell you about it if you haven't grabbed a
panel to use as a shield. Keep moving, look up to see where enemies might
stand and hurl energy balls at them. Whenever you are close enough to an
enemy, try to pull him in directly instead of using the plasma balls.
Once you're finally up, you definitely deserve the health panel. Stop before
the force field on the left to wait for a few Combine running into your arms.
Move out into another high hall and haste through as you eliminate a few
small groups of Combine. Use the health panel.
Drop down and quickly pull in the capsule on the left. Use it to safely reach
the second capsule, hurl the first one at the Combine in front of you, pick
up the second one and also hurl it at the enemies after reaching capsule #3.
As you are extremely close to the Combine now and as there should only be a
few of them left you can attack them directly. Run on, pick up another
capsule and shoot it at the other Combine across the bridge. Hide behind the
capsules on the left, wait for any survivors to come near and dispose of them.
Not it's time to fight a strider with the super gravity gun. Stay behind the
capsules, pull in an energy ball, peek out on the left and fire at the
strider. Hide again and repeat. If your cover gets blown apart somehow,
constantly strafe from the left set of capsules to the right one and back
again while rapidly shooting off energy balls. Lower the force field at the
other end of the bridge after the battle and hop down.
[Another Bumpy Ride]
Heal yourself and enter another capsule. A laser scanner unfortunately
recognizes you, forcing you to take another path than the other capsules. See
those big frog-like things below you at one place during the ride? I wonder
if those appear in Episode 1 or any later episode.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.14 Chapter 13 - Dark Energy=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C13
[The Portal]
After the long and interesting dialogue you have to follow Dr. Breen. See
that thing he speaks with? I guess that has to be some sort of Combine Queen
or something like that. Shortly after you get back your super gravity gun and
Alyx enables you to enter the lift your nemesis escaped with.
Listen to some more text; then move along the wall on the right, kill three
Combine and move up the ramp until you can pull in the six energy balls of
the first two force fields. Proceed to third one. As you shut it down you
should ignore the enemies coming up from behind. Hop onto the thing that goes
up and down and let it take you up to some enemies. Kill them and move on to
a small platform at the inner circle. It takes you up to near a health panel.
Jump towards it, patch yourself up, ignore the enemies below and hop onto
another platform near the panel. Just watch out not to fall down. Ride the
platform up, close in on three enemies, kill them, turn left and take one
last platform up to the final battle.
Position yourself at the far end of the platform. Two gunships will come in
through the portal. Since there are two streams of energy balls around you
will have to use these to crash the gunships. Stay at the far end, pull in
energy balls, fire them off at the left enemy (luckily, they don't zoom
around as they usually do) and strafe around a bit to hide behind the column
in between your attacks. Once the first one is down, strafe to the right to
repeat the procedure against the second gunship.
After that, return to the far left of the platform and hurl plasma balls into
the portal core to break off those spinning plates.
That's it! You've just beaten HL2. Congratulations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Weapons DDD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--------
Crowbar:
--------
Primary Fire Mode : Swing the crowbar.
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a
Ah, the famous crowbar; one of your most reliable aids in the original Half-
Life. Unfortunately, though, it loses almost all of his purposes once you get
the gravity gun. Before that, use the crowbar to break crates apart, to
destroy manhacks and to fight headcrabs when trying to save ammo. Afterwards
you can at least still use it against normal zombies and toxic zombies unless
there are objects lying around you can toss at them with the gravity gun. Oh,
and also don't use the crowbar against Barnacles as you could do in HL1.
------------
Gravity Gun:
------------
Primary Fire Mode : Toss something away.
Secondary Fire Mode: Pull something to you and make it float in midair right
in front of the gun.
Probably the best idea Valve had: The gravity gun can be extremely fun to use
and it allows for a lot of experimenting. Use the gravity gun to destroy
crates, to defeat manhacks, antlions and any kind of headcrabs (by attacking
them directly), as well as against antlion queens, normal zombies and toxic
zombies when there are heavy solid objects lying around.
Furthermore it can perfectly toss away those pesky sentry guns and mine balls
and in combination with concrete blocks, explosive barrels and radiators it
even is a great weapon against the Combine as long as you know how to aim.
Explosive objects that are thrown away with the gravity gun explode on
landing, so this can both be a great danger to any enemy and to you, so makes
sure to only do this when there is a lot of space around you and when the
enemy is quite far away.
Also employ the gravity gun to pull in items that would be out of reach
otherwise.
While you can use the gravity gun to pick up grenades and throw them away, I
really don't recommend this as they might explode right in your face this way.
Only try this in multiplayer when it's a make or break situation.
-------
Pistol:
-------
Primary Fire Mode : Normal Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a
The standard pistol works well against headcrabs before obtaining the gravity
gun, but after that it should only be used against single normal zombies.
Unlike other Ego-Shooters, Half-Life 2 has a pretty lame pistol and you
definitely shouldn't use it except for the two situations I mentioned above.
-------
Magnum:
-------
Primary Fire Mode : Normal Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a
The magnum kicks ass in any game it appears in and so does it in Half-Life 2.
It is somewhat slow, its reload time is a pain and its ammo is rare, but it
sure hits hard and accurate. Use it when you need to take out any kind of
(non-mechanical) enemy quickly or when you just feel like going rampage.
----------------
Sub Machine Gun:
----------------
Primary Fire Mode : Rapid Fire
Secondary Fire Mode: Grenade
This gun used to be my weapon of choice in the first Half-Life. Unfortunately
it is way less effective in the second one. The normal fire is decent, but a
magazine is a lot earlier empty already than you'd expect, it is imprecise
and it doesn't deal as much damage as it should. The grenades on the other
hand are great as they are powerful and as they explode immediately upon
contact. Still the grenades on their own don't make a good weapon and
switching to the SMG just to fire off a grenade also isn't a good thing to do.
Bottom-line is: Use the SMG when you are low on pulse-rifle ammo and on
shotgun ammo or when you have lots of health left and not too many enemies
around.
------------
Pulse-Rifle:
------------
Primary Fire Mode : Rapid Fire
Secondary Fire Mode: Disintegrator
Best. Weapon. Of the game.
Seriously, the pulse-rifle has a high rate of fire, it is pretty precise even
at long distances, it is extremely powerful and after about half of the game
you will find pulse ammo at many fallen Combine. Furthermore the secondary
fire is a feast to use as well. You fire off a big ball of plasma energy
which bounces off any walls a few times, instantly killing any living enemy
upon contact. Since its ammo is scarce, though, you should save it for really
hard passages. Another (minor) downside is that the secondary fire not only
dissolves the enemies, but also their weapons.
Use the pulse-rifle against Combine and elite Combine and also on super
zombies if you feel like you need to. It can even be used to snipe at enemies
if you run low on crossbow ammo. Just don't waste the pulse energy which
especially means not to use it against weak enemies and to aim for the
Combine's heads.
--------
Shotgun:
--------
Primary Fire Mode : Single Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: Double Shot
Well, it's a shotgun. I guess you know what that means: Great damage in close
quarter, but extreme scattering at long distances. The shotgun is of good use
against any kinds of zombies and headcrabs, but should also be used against
Combine inside of buildings to save the pulse ammo. The secondary fire
basically is the same as the primary one, differing in that it takes two
shells and hence dealing twice the damage. If you are confident in your
aiming skills, I recommend the double shot against Combine, as it would
otherwise usually take two hits ion hard difficulty to kill a Combine.
---------
Crossbow:
---------
Primary Fire Mode : Single Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: Zoom in / zoom out
Other Ego-Shooters might have sniping weapons that are both more effective
and cooler, but at least you have a sniping weapon after all. Zoom in at an
enemy (never even think of fighting enemies up close with the crossbow) and
fire off a slow bolt. Not only are they slow but they also are bound to
gravity, which means that they lose height as they fly. Furthermore the
crossbow bolts often don't hit, somehow disappearing in midair for no obvious
reason. Still, since it is a one-hit-kill weapon and since it has a great
zoom, this should be your first choice against Combine standing far away, at
least as long as they don't move around too much. If the Combine are at
medium distance or if they keep dodging your attacks, I rather recommend the
pulse-rifle.
---------
Grenades:
---------
Primary Fire Mode : Press to lob a grenade or keep pressed until you want to
lob it. It doesn't make a difference.
Secondary Fire Mode: Light throw.
Grenades either explode a few seconds after having been thrown (no matter how
long you kept in your hand) or upon contact with anything, when being picked
up with the gravity gun and hurled away.
Sadly the latter choice is too risky and the first one is rather useless in
most situations as fast enemies that try to rush in on you are too hard to
hit and as Combine most often run away from the grenades. Only throw grenades
to clear a stationary machine gun or against numerous enemies in tight places.
Secondary fire makes Gordon rather drop the grenade than really toss it, so
use it to attack close targets, but make sure to run from the explosion.
-----------------
Missile Launcher:
-----------------
Primary Fire Mode : Fire off a missile.
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a
The missile launcher is an extremely strong weapon, just as it is supposed to
be. Like in HL1 you can steer a missile after having fired it off, making it
easier to hit moving targets. The bad thing, though is that it actually isn't
a can, but rather a must. Unlike HL1, HL2 doesn't allow for turning off the
steering function, so you cannot fire and forget. Its most important use is
against gunships, which require the steering function, but still I feel like
they shouldn't have changed the weapon in the second game.
The missile launcher is crucial against gunships and striders, but it should
also be used against strong groups of Combine. Don't worry: If you definitely
need the missile launcher to proceed you will always have a missile crate
somewhere not too far away.
Also note that the blast radius isn't as effective as you might think. In
order to kill a Combine you have to hit him directly or the
ground/wall/ceiling extremely close to him.
----------
Pheropods:
----------
Primary Fire Mode : Toss a Bug Bait to determine a target for the antlions.
Secondary Fire Mode: Squeeze a Bug Bait to make all antlions follow you.
The pheropods grant you control over all antlions (except for the big ones)
even if you don't have 'em in your hands. Still you should use them for most
of the time when antlions are around as they are not only fun to use, but
also pretty effective when commanding the insects to charge in before you.
After leaving Nova Prospekt, however, the pheropods become rather useless,
since you leave your insect friends behind. The only remaining use for them
is to distract Combine by throwing the pheropods right at them. Only do this
if you need to kill a Combine desperately without risking to lose any health
and also only if that Combine has no friends around, though.
------------------
Super Gravity Gun:
------------------
Primary Fire Mode : Toss something away.
Secondary Fire Mode: Pull something to you and make it float in midair right
in front of the gun.
Ok, actually this isn't listed as a weapon on its own in the game, but I fell
like the enhanced gravity gun deserves its own section.
Basically the super gravity gun works the same way as the normal gravity gun,
but it wields so much more power than its little brother. It allows for
manipulating Combine, plasma balls, heavy computers and monitors and, of
course, all the stuff the normal gravity gun can.
Since it is your only weapon once you get it, you surely have to use it, but
let me give you the advice to mainly use the gun on the enemies directly.
Hurling heavy objects takes too long and you don't have a clear view. Plasma
balls also take a while and they are rather hard to aim with. Pulling in an
enemy directly takes him down quickly and you can hurl it at its buddies.
Alternatively, when fighting Combine over a big distance, you can pull in the
first one, drop him while he flies over to you and quickly lift the second
one and so on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Enemies EEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this section, the first field for every enemy holds its name (or what I
believe to be its name), the second one holds my opinion on how dangerous
they are (from 1 to 5 asterisks, with five being extremely lethal) and the
third one holds its outer appearance.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-5.1 Combine-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=EE1
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Combine Soldier | ***OO | Humanoid alien wearing a blue suit and a mask|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pulse-rifle | 2. Shotgun / Crossbow |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|The common Combine Soldier probably is the enemy you will encounter the |
|most. They either wield a shotgun, an SMG or a pulse-rifle, all of which |
|are rather strong weapons. Furthermore they can toss grenades, smack you |
|with their gun I close-quarter and man machine guns. They also dodge your |
|grenades and sometimes hide behind objects. Definitely kill them quickly, |
|especially when being close to them as a shotgun can rip you apart in no |
|time. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Elite Combine |***OO + 1/2| Humanoid alien wearing a white suit |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pulse-rifle | 2. Shotgun / Crossbow |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These are pretty similar to the usual Combine Soldiers, but they always |
|carry a pulse-rifle, even employing its secondary fire mode. In addition |
|they can take a bit more of damage than the blue Combine. On the other hand|
|their pulse-rifle obviously does the same damage as the one of the normal |
|Combine and the white guys cannot throw grenades. Bottom-line is that they |
|are a bit more dangerous than their blue buddies, making them your first |
|target whenever you see one of them. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.2 Xen Aliens=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE2
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Headcrab | *OOOO | Little alien trying to jump at you |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|I guess you know these pesky little creatures from HL1 or from the Alien |
|movies. Although they tend to be tedious as they can be hard to hit, they |
|are only a minimum threat as they deal few damage. Early in the game you |
|should use the crowbar, later on the gravity gun. If you want to get them |
|out of the way quickly you can also use the pistol or the shotgun. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Toxic Headcrab | *OOOO | Similar to headcrabs, but thinner and black |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Like the normal headcrabs, these try to assault you with a long jump, but |
|they don't deal damage the usual way. Instead they lower your health to one|
|point as they poison you. Your health slowly restores to nearly the amount |
|it was at before the attack, so toxic headcrabs on their own can only take |
|away a bit of your life, but in combination with other enemies, they can |
|mean a quick death. If these appear together with other headcrabs, you |
|should use the shotgun, otherwise there is no need to worry. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Super Headcrab |*OOOO + 1/2| Similar to headcrabs, but thinner |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Probably Valve had some other name in mind for these, but I think super |
|headcrab gives you a good idea of what they are: Better headcrabs. They are|
|a lot faster than the normal type, but that's about it. Because of their |
|speed they also do more damage in a short amount of time, but still they |
|aren't too much of a threat. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Zombie | *OOOO | Mutated human with a headcrab on its head |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar / Shotgun |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Zombies are human beings that have been overtaken by a headcrab. They are |
|dumb, they move rather slowly, they only attack in close-quarter and their |
|dead after a few hits. Unless you're trapped, hurl objects at them with the|
|gravity gun or use the crowbar, but if you lack space to dodge their pretty|
|strong attacks, just give them a blast from your shotgun. Sometimes the |
|headcrab survives the death of its host, so be prepared. Sadly, you don't |
|have any effect on whether this happens or not. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Toxic Zombie | *OOOO | Fat human with toxic headcrabs on it |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar / Shotgun |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These bulky (or even fat) guys have been overtaken by toxic headcrabs, |
|three of which they hurl at you. Just kill those three headcrabs and either|
|ignore the host or take him down with the crowbar. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Super Zombie | ****O | Human with a super headcrab on its head |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Shotgun | 2. Pulse-rifle |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Super zombies are heavily mutated human beings that have been infected by a|
|super headcrab. Other than the normal and toxic zombies, these are |
|extremely fast and dangerous. Try to strafe and back off all the time while|
|aiming the shotgun at their head. Like the normal zombies, the super |
|zombies sometimes give you a second fight as the parasite can survive. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Barnacle |OOOOO + 1/2| An alien creature hanging from the ceiling |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pistol | 2. Shotgun |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Ahh, the lovely Barnacles get a comeback. Simply avoid walking into their |
|tentacle and you should be fine. If you cannot easily get around it, either|
|kill them from below or feed them some object that lies around to quickly |
|pass by. If you still get caught by one, swiftly eliminate it on your way |
|up or else you will not only get hurt by the Barnacle directly, but also by|
|the fall. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-5.3 Bugs-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE3
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Antlion |*OOOO + 1/2| A big insect |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Shotgun / SMG |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These insects behave similar to headcrabs, but they keep respawning in the |
|sand and they deal more damage. Stay in your buggy as long as possible and |
|stay off the sand. Those machineries that look like oil pumps can hold them|
|off when being activated. Once you've got the pheropods, the antlions stop |
|attacking you. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Antlion Queen | ****O | An even bigger insect |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Shotgun | 2. Gravity Gun / Pulse-Rifle|
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Luckily you encounter these huge antlions only a few times. When you do, |
|keep running from them backwards and try to get solid obstacles between you|
|and it. Antlion Queens usually try to tackle you, but they can also hurl |
|loose objects at you, so keep strafing when one of them aims for a radiator|
|or a crate or whatever. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.4 Heavy Gear=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE4
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Helicopter | ****O | Well...it's a helicopter |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Machine Gun | 2. None |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These appear only at the beginning of the game. Later on they are |
|substituted by the gunships. As you don't have the missile launcher when |
|facing the helicopters, try to avoid their heavy fire, hide and move |
|quickly. The only way of destroying them is with stationary machine guns |
|and with the one you get attached to your hovercraft. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Dropship | ***OO | An insectoid flying machine with a black box |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. None | 2. None |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Dropships cannot be taken down (except for one scene where it is absolutely|
|trivial), but they have a machine gun at their front side and they carry |
|four Combine, that they drop out right at the machine gun. Try not to get |
|into the view of the machine gun; the best position is next to them, so you|
|are safe and can easily kill the Combine while disembarking. Otherwise, |
|stay away from them and wait until they are gone. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Gunship | ***** | Similar to dropships, but thinner and w/o box|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Missile L. | 2. None |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Gunships are the hardest enemies in HL2 in my opinion. Not only do they |
|deal lots of damage, but they also withstand a lot of damage and they can |
|blow up your missiles in midair. Since the missile launcher is the only way|
|to take them down you still have to use them. Step out of your hideout, |
|fire a missile rather far away from the gunship and steer it in, in a |
|zigzag motion. Another good way of dealing with a gunship is to wait for it|
|to get close and/or to turn around, so you get to aim at it directly. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Strider | ****O | Three-legged walkers |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Missile L. | 2. Pulse-Rifle second. fire |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Imagine the walkers from War of the Worlds and put in some insectoid looks |
|and you know what you have here. Striders are powerful and they take a lot |
|of damage before going down. Luckily, though, you will only face few of |
|them and most of the time you will have a missile crate and allies nearby. |
|This means you get to hide, shoot, hide and so on, with your buddies even |
|distracting the Strider, further easing the fight for you. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.5 Small Machines=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE5
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Hopper | *OOOO | A mine with a light on top of it |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. None |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Hoppers first of all indicate if they mean any danger: If the light is |
|turned off, they don't do anything, allowing you to use the gravity gun on |
|them, so they get a green light. When the light is green, they explode if |
|an enemy closes in. If the light is red, they react on Gordon and his |
|allies. Either ignore hoppers or carefully approach them, backing off, once|
|they hop up, or use the gravity gun to pick them up, which also allows you |
|to hurl them at enemies. Hoppers are sometimes dropped by small |
|transporters. Simply ignore those. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sentry Drone | OOOOO | A flying camera |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Scanners cannot hurt you. In fact the only thing they can do is annoying |
|you with their flash light. Destroy them when you aren't amidst a real |
|battle. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Laser Ball | *OOOO | A Metal ball with blue laser light |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. None |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|They try to get close to deal some damage, but as they are weak, you don't |
|have to worry too much. Pull them in with the gravity gun and throw them |
|down a cliff or into the water. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sentry Turret | ***OO | A small turret that fires automatically |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Shotgun |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Sentry Turrets hit hard and they cannot really be destroyed. Hide from them|
|and either hurl objects at them or close in to use the gravity gun directly|
|to knock them over. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sunken Gun | ***OO | A sunken gun, that pops out of the ground |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Grenades | 2. None |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|When you see a blue laser line, first of all search for differently colored|
|metal plates on the ground. This is where the sunken guns pop out once you |
|cross the line. Equip a grenade, hold the primary fire button, aim at the |
|plate and break the laser. Once you do, instantly release the button and |
|hide somewhere. Hopefully the grenade rolls right into the hatch of the |
|gun, destroying it in a single blow. If it misses: Repeat. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Manhack | **OOO | A small mechanic flying thing with saw blades|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Actually manhacks are a big threat early on in the game, requiring you to |
|dodge well and swing the crowbar with skill, but once you get the gravity |
|gun, they become nothing but a little annoyance. Simply hurl them against |
|the walls with it and they will explode on the first hit when being close |
|to the wall. Otherwise you might also use the SMG before getting the |
|gravity gun. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6. Closing Comments FFF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Probably lots of people disagree with me on this, but I was kinda
disappointed by HL2. Half-Life 1 basically had it all (plus those stupid Xen-
levels), whereas I really didn't get the same feeling carried over by the
atmosphere in HL2 as I did in its predecessor. I missed the cool setting in
Black Mesa, I missed the aliens, I missed the great weapons and I certainly
hated the puzzles in HL2; one of the strong points of HL1. I mean: Come on,
stepping onto a crate, dropping another one in front of you, stepping onto it,
turning around, picking up the first crate, dropping it in front of you and
so on isn't fun once and this game requires stuff like that various times.
What could've been...hopefully Dark Messiah of Might & Magic makes better use
of the potentially great Source Engine.
Oh and I haven't mentioned the final boss and the ending so far: HL1 had one
of the most intricate Ego-Shooter bosses in a world where the highest trouble
makers in games like RTCW, Duke Nukem 3D, Goldeneye, Painkiller and so on
disappoint in terms of creativity and difficulty, but in HL2 you can stand
still at a place and keep firing to beat the final boss. That's just plain
bad game design, directly leading to the ending: You might think differently
on this, but I thought the ending of HL1 was cool (with the decision-making
part and the teleportation) and made me long for a sequel, whereas the ending
of HL2 just made me mad. I don't want to spoil you (maybe you read this part
prior to finishing the game, although I doubt anybody reads this section at
all ^^), so I won't say anything more about it, although there actually isn't
much to spoil about it.
Still HL2 is a good game and I enjoyed it. The gravity gun was a great, yet
not fully taken advantage of, weapon, the graphics are still stunning at
times and there's lots of variance in gameplay...so please don't email me how
much of a moron I am for criticizing "teh Uber-Shooter!!1!eleven". ;)
I'd appreciate any comments, questions, high scores, critics or whatsoever,
so please mail me at KeeperBvK@web.de if you have anything to tell me (even
misspellings and stuff).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7. Experimental GGG
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In some other guides I've seen the author implement the following and I
thought "Why not give it a try for your own guides?":
If you really like this guide and you think it helped you or entertained you
a bit or whatsoever and you feel like rewarding me not only by writing a nice
e-mail, feel free to send some money to my paypal account at:
LH_Zerberus@web.de
Of course I don't want to make somebody send me money who doesn't really want
to (even if I could, I wouldn't ;) ), but (also of course) I'd appreciate any
contribution.
Thank you very much for reading this guide and hopefully some more of my
stuff on gamefaqs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8. Credits HHH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thx go out to:
O Bruce Zhang, for pointing out that the secondary fire of the Pulse-Rifle
also hurts Striders.
O Robbie Vancourt, for telling me that Alyx' robot pet's name isn't Dog but
D0g.
O Walker Wilson, for sending in some good info on the pheropods.
O Dominic_rules, for informing me that grenades also have a secondary fire
mode.
O Vidmo, for hinting me to building a set of stairs in Entanglement, making
that level drastically easier.
O Andrew Carts, for hinting me at mentioning that the Magnum is not only
strong, but also pretty accurate. Seems obvious, but I missed out on that
before he told me. ;)
O MeestahChanggg & Darkpark, for refining Vidmo's great strategy even more.
O Warlock1307, for pointing me to the singing Vortigaunt.
O Taner Tuemkaya, for giving me a neat hint on the end of level 12.